When compared to most of the small group of 50,000-watt LGBT bloggers out there, Chris Crain can be counted on for contrary takes on LGBT issues of the day. Crain blogs at Citizen Crain and manages a very good gay news digest at GayNewsWatch.com. He is also a columnist and former editor of the Washington Blade.

His contrarian streak shows through in a column in this week's Blade as he takes on the brief flurry of blog coverage of the Richard Curtis affair in Spokane last week. (Revel in a sample that coverage in our special-edition Dick and Cody ticker.)

For different reasons, but like Matt Sanchez, Crain finds hypocrisy in the coverage of the Curtis affair by bloggers -- especially gay bloggers:

Only passing reference has been made by bloggers and their “amen” chorus of commenters to the felony unpleasantness that had befallen poor Rep. Curtis. Apparently the revelry isn’t as much fun if we’re reminded that the target of our snickers is himself the victim of a crime.

And fun is the theme here, especially for Dan Savage, the gay advice columnist who has made his entire career based on other people’s sex lives, though usually at the stranger’s (anonymous) request. “I spent the last hour wading through the 15 page police report. Holy crap!” Savage reported excitedly on his blog. “Curtis, hoping to keep this whole thing quiet, called the police himself. And when the police asked him what happened, Curtis told them everything.”

Isn’t that hilarious? For all we know, Curtis is the victim of blackmail, but it’s a real knee-slapper how Savage and company have picked up right where the blackmailer left off, exposing every private sexual detail they can get their hands on, and with giddy commentary to boot.

It is certainly true that most bloggers gave short shrift of the original outlines of the story -- Castagna's alleged extortion, but that's mostly because the blog-cosmos was late in picking up the story. The initial reports on Monday from Spokane media, led by KXLY and KREM TV, emphasized the extortion case. But it was Curtis himself who changed the nature of the story Monday afternoon with his declaration to the editor of The Columbian, "I am not gay. I have not had sex with a guy.”

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