WASHINGTON — Their center of operations occupies not one, but two top-floor apartments located directly across from each other in a nondescript Adams Morgan high-rise, where the two friends and activists have both lived for years.

Their information comes to them via a network of insiders, mostly planted at various gay and lesbian bars across Washington. And their modus operandi for fighting a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage consists of well-placed phone calls to closeted congressional aides who work for members supportive of the amendment, declaring their intent to publicly reveal the aides’ sexual orientation.

From that high-rise, with a view of the nation’s epicenter of public policy, the ongoing outing campaign loosely headed by gay activists Michael Rogers and John Aravosis evoked panic and precaution behind the Capitol’s closed doors last week, signifying the resurrected, yet still controversial, tactic’s scope and impact.

The reactions on the Hill came in various formats: e-mails from staffers of prominent gay advocacy groups to anonymous lists of Hill employees warning them of impending outings; admonitions against the practice in public forums and on television; and meetings between Senate chiefs of staff and aides that reaffirmed office nondiscrimination or zero-tolerance policies.

The responses Rogers said he received ranged from “donations to death threats,” but both he and Aravosis said they are undeterred in their pursuit to expose what they call the duplicity of policymakers pushing for the Federal Marriage Amendment.

“In the words of Harvey Milk, ‘Let the bullet that pierces my brain blow open every closet door,’” Rogers said. “We are engaging in an activist campaign that educates people; it makes them aware of the hypocrisy of America’s right wing.

“This is not about kids who are folding the mail or answering the phones because their parents suggested they come work for the government. This is about highly visible people — press secretaries, legislative directors, chiefs of staff — people who influence leaders and put a face to their policies.”

News about the activists’ outing efforts, which they said has grown from six to 13 offices in less than 10 days, began to spread through downtown Washington by word of mouth early in the week of June 21, sources from several gay advocacy groups said, landing in Capitol office buildings shortly thereafter.

An e-mail memorandum sent by Human Rights Campaign lobbyist Matthew McTighe to a group of gay government professionals warned that the Washington Blade, a publication affiliated with Southern Voice, planned on publishing a story listing the names of closeted congressional staffers.

“We’re hearing that the Blade may run a story tomorrow listing the names of gay staff members from the White House or who work for members who support the FMA,” McTighe wrote. “We’re doing everything we can to stop it from happening, but frankly there’s only so much an organization like HRC can do to stop the Blade or any other activists from doing this.”

A spokesperson for HRC said McTighe obtained his information from Hill aides who reportedly received phone calls from an activist impersonating a Washington Blade reporter, asking questions about the personal lives of aides and alleging that he or she was outing people in an article.

Rogers insisted that he had never impersonated a reporter in his outing campaign.

“I am a strong believer in an independent media and would never misrepresent myself as a member of [the Blade] or any other publication,” Rogers wrote in an e-mail. “As you know, our campaign focuses on informing people of the truth, not covering up who we are and lying.”

Outing mania
The political newspaper the Hill also contributed to the discussions among the inner circle of gay congressional aides by publishing an article on June 24 headlined, “If you’re gay, you’re out!”

Local TV news programs also pounced on the outing rumors, with CBS affiliate WUSA and Fox station WTTG airing stories on the subject last week.

Newsweek’s Washington bureau contacted the Washington Blade about the rumor but did not publish an article on the subject.

“We received a significant number of phone calls reporting that the Blade was publishing this article,” said HRC spokesperson Steven Fisher. “Our staffer [McTighe] sent off an e-mail to some of the people on his contact list that this may be happening, and that we were looking into it and trying to block it.”

HRC President Cheryl Jacques also confirmed at a luncheon sponsored by two gay congressional associations that she, too, had heard a rumor about a pending article in the Blade outing gay Hill staffers.

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