Life is full of great irony. Bill Clinton was nearly impeached for lying about a sexual dalliance with a female intern. Now a series of Republicans are embroiled in their own scandals, but this time all the allegations involved men with men.

By almost all accounts, the repeated gay sex allegations against prominent Republican lawmakers, consultants, lobbyists, and advisors during the past year or so have laid bare apparent contradictions between the followers’ anti-gay rights creed and their own lives on-the-down-low. Representative Richard Curtis’ fall from party grace is just the most recent scandal, featuring a conservative Republican, anti-gay rights stalwart caught in the crosshairs of a same-sex solicitation allegation. Curtis allegedly hired a male prostitute to join him at a hotel for sex.

Curtis’ demise follows Senator Larry Craig’s humiliation for allegedly soliciting sex from a male undercover police officer in a Minneapolis airport toilet.  And let’s not forget Ted Haggard, the evangelical anti-gay rights crusader and Bush advisor, who was hounded by accusations for allegedly paying a male prostitute for services. Or the prominent missing and exploited child advocate, Representative Mark Foley, who allegedly sent frequent sexually explicit emails to teenage males in the Congressional page program. And then we have Florida representative Bob Allen, who some might describe as a burly man, who allegedly offered another “burly man” $20 for oral sex. Apparently, all of these “straight” men betrayed their families, their constituents, their friends, and their party. Some allegedly broke laws that they helped champion. All of them have a public record against protecting the civil rights of gays and lesbians.

Yet, these cases present significant challenges for me because I have spent much of the last year examining whether the Constitution must be read to protect the personal privacy and equality of American citizens who are gay and lesbian. In a forthcoming article, I have concluded that gay and lesbian citizens must have the same fundamental rights as other citizens, including the rights to vote, travel, and to make private choices with their consenting adult partners to enjoy private sexual intimacy and to marry. For me, neither the due process clauses nor equal protection guarantees of the American Constitution permit arbitrary discrimination against homosexual citizens. My recent work suggests that some of the alleged acts would require legal protection, especially when done in private and between consenting adults.

Here’s the irony. I want to champion equality, liberty, and personal dignity for all American citizens, including those who choose same-sex partners, but I also want to condemn the hypocrisy and abuse of power by politicians like Curtis, Craig, Haggard, Foley, Allen, and others who have vociferously targeted gay and lesbian citizens for discrimination. I oppose their double standards.

Now some of the allegations are more serious, especially those involving the alleged abuse and exploitation of children, as well as the misuse of public office for personal gain or sexual favors. In my view, children need the protection of laws that most adults do not. Few, if any, children can protect themselves from sexual exploitation. And adults who sexually abuse and exploit children do physical and psychological harm unlikely ever to be undone. Those alleged crimes should be prosecuted.

Yet, other allegations are of much less significance. I just don’t care as much if Curtis wears women’s lingerie. It is not a crime. I also care little if Craig or Allen like giving or having oral sex with other men, although surely the law could insist that such sex acts occur in private places rather than public toilets and other public places. I also don’t care as much if Curtis and Haggard buy the services of adult male prostitutes. First, my standards for adults are different. More often, adults have more choices and the role of law is to protect individual choices, especially when it is more difficult to identify real harms. Second, unless we are willing to open all of our homes and bedrooms to public scrutiny, it is simply impossible to enforce sex for hire and oral sex bans impartially. And if the law cannot be enforced impartially or if lawmakers are unwilling to enforce laws equally, I will not support those laws.

Too often, those who cast stones live in glass houses. The law should not be a tool for hypocrites, whether Republican, Democrat, or third party hypocrites.

There should be no shame in same-sex intimacy or love. Adults should not have to lie about their homosexuality and many of their private choices should be equally protected under impartial laws.

I hold great disdain and contempt for those who misuse civic power to abuse others. The Republicans made same-sex marriage a wedge issue to secure President Bush’s 2004 re-election. The Democrats failed to stand up and defend the rights of American citizens who are gay or lesbian.  Neither national party really has clean hands regarding protecting American citizens who are gay or lesbian. Neither is in a position to cast stones.