Why Does The Label "Gay" - Whether Attached to a Senator Like Larry Craig or a Rep. Like Mark Foley - Generate Such Attention?

I've watched Web searches and hits swell every time there is a "surprise" announcement that a U.S. Congressman like Mark Foley or a U.S. Senator like Larry Craig (who is rumored to be) is gay.

But why?

Statisticians tell us that approximately one in every 10 Americans is homosexual, which is roughly the same number as those who have been admitted to any kind of hospital for mental illness.

But let me point out that being gay sadly still brings with it the great stigma that mental illness does. Oh sure, we talk about both now far more openly than we once did, but secretly, there remains the cluck of tongues, the secret wonder, "what did they do wrong?"

With this in mind, can we really believe that only one in every 10 Americans is gay?

Yet, even if this figure is right, when will we stop being so damned shocked and titillated at the thought someone is homosexual?

There is one person who reads this blog who knows how I reacted when this person came out and told me; he did nothing in particular to try to conceal this information and was floored when I literally fell off my couch as he told me he was gay - he figured I already knew given that we spent hours each day together.

But I was pretty naive and sheltered back then. I was barely knowledgeable about sex in general, let alone anything more specific. And yet today, in seeing how the public responds to a public official being gay, I wonder how they managed to be as naive and unknowledgeable today - given the media - as I was in college.