10 Anti-Gay Monsters Who Lurked In The Closet

While goblins and ghouls may frighten some, closeted anti-gay conservatives are waaaay scarier. Their lives of dishonesty, shame, self-loathing and hypocrisy cause them to lash out and harm as many gay people as possible. Such "closet monsters" have existed throughout history, but we picked out 10 from Salon.com's longer list of 21 and put them in this haunted hall of shame. Enjoy, but don't end up like them.

Roy Cohn – Serving as Senator Joe McCarthy’s prosecuting attorney during the 1950s “Red Scare,” Cohn helped expose and kick out “queers” and “sex perverts” from government service. Though undoubtedly gay, he never came out and later died of AIDS (near his death, they took this photo of him).

After managing Bush's 2004 re-election campaign — the most anti-gay political campaign in modern memory — Mehlman came out in 2010. He has since tried to atone by lobbying Republican legislators to vote in favor of marriage equality.

Former Republican member of the Washington State House, West died as a closeted internet chicken-hawker (an old gay guy who pursues younger men). He said his biggest regret was once voting to forbid homos from teaching in public schools.

The former Republican U.S. representative from Florida narrowly avoided a criminal inquiry by resigning after the media reported proof of his decade-long attempts to turn young Congressional male pages into his personal butt boys.

Married Evangelical pastor Ted Haggard publicly supported anti-gay laws while privately supporting his three-year-long meth habit with a male prostitute (or so the prostitute claims). Haggard eventually came out as bisexual in a 2011 GQ interview.

As a former president of the Young Republican National Federation, he advocated "straight family values." Later on, he became a registered sex offender after trying to suck a sleeping man's dong.

Homo-hating mega-church pastor Eddie Long paid an undisclosed amount of hush money to silence four young men who accused him of seducing them with gifts and psuedo-religious hotel room “bonding ceremonies.” Mm-hmm.

Former Florida State Representative Robert Allen offered an undercover cop $20 for a beej in a park bathroom because (according to Allen) he thought the black cop wanted to rob him. Yes, blowjobs are an excellent defense against robbery.

After voting to criminalize same-sex domestic partnerships and legal protections for gay citizens, former Republican Washington state representative initially denied news reports of his affair with a gay porn star and love of cross dressing fetish. He later owned up to them and resigned in 2007.