Is Cory Booker Gay?

Campaign seasons are long, and they’re even longer when the outcome seems more or less pre-ordained. That’s the only reason we can figure out why the question of Cory Booker’s sexual orientation has suddenly become relevant in recent days: Google News suggests the search for “Cory Booker Gay” comes back with 10,200 results from the last few days.

The Newark mayor (and U.S. Senator-apparent) apparently raised the subject himself in a Washington Post profile this week, in the midst of explaining why he tries to keep his private life private:

“Because how unfair is it to a young lady to put them in the spotlight if they haven’t signed up for that yet?” he says. “And people who think I’m gay, some part of me thinks it’s wonderful. Because I want to challenge people on their homophobia. I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I’m gay, and I say, ‘So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I’m straight.’ ”

Steve Lonegan, Booker’s Republican tackling dummy doormat ritual sacrifice opponent, then told conservative website Newsmax those comments were “weird.”

In response, Lonegan, the former mayor of Bogota, told Newsmax’s Steve Malzberg “maybe that helps to get him the gay vote, by acting ambiguous.”

“It’s kind of weird,” Lonegan added. “As a guy, I personally like being a guy.”

And, Lonegan noted, “I don’t know if you saw the stories last year. They’ve been out for quite a bit about how he likes to go out at three o’clock in the morning for a manicure and a pedicure.”

”I don’t like going out in the middle of the night, or any time of the day, for a manicure and pedicure. It was described as his peculiar fetish, is how it was described,” Lonegan said. “I have a more peculiar fetish, I like a good Scotch and a cigar, that’s my fetish, but we’ll just compare the two.”

In this case, let’s point out, a cigar isn’t just a cigar. It’s meant to represent Lonegan’s huge, manly, heterosexual penis.

Anyway, the Newark Star-Ledger points out today that gay rumors have followed Booker for years.

As early as 10 years ago, when Booker was trying to unseat Mayor Sharpe James in 2002, allies of James spread the word that the Booker was gay.

It was not the last time the issue would come up.

When talk of his sexuality emerged last year as he considered challenging Gov. Chris Christie, Booker again denied the loose talk. And when a phony Facebook page in Booker’s name declared that he had come out of the closet, a staff member said he “likes the ladies.”

Even in 2006, when he was about to assume the mayoral office, a voter asked Booker about the rumor. He again denied it, but declined to go any further. He said today that answering the question was tantamount to judging someone’s abilities based on faith or race.

“We need to understand that race, religion, sexual orientation, all of these things are not germane to a person’s ability to lead the state of New Jersey,” Booker said.

Anyway, the answer to the question above—”Is Cory Booker gay?”—is: We don’t really know. Big whup. Can America handle the ambiguity we usually only accept in pop stars?