Is Mike Pence Gay?

The current issue of The Atlantic has an indepth article profiling Donald Trump's Vice President, Mike Pence (link here). The piece examines how the zealotous Pence is something of a dim bulb -- many people mockingly call him Mike Dense -- but politically shrewd and conniving and how he has made a bargain with the Devil by pairing with the profane President who daily embraces all of the deadly sins and more.

Near the end of the article, the author decribes how Pence is rhapsodic and effusive about Trump, sounding more like a boyband groupie than a politician. An excerpt:

"On the stump and in interviews, Pence spoke of Trump in a tone that bordered on worshipful. One of his rhetorical tics was to praise the breadth of his running mate’s shoulders. Trump was, Pence proclaimed, a 'broad-shouldered leader,' in possession of 'broad shoulders and a big heart,' who had 'the kind of broad shoulders' that enabled him to endure criticism while he worked to return 'broad-shouldered American strength to the world stage.'"

Have you ever known a straight man to gush about another man's shoulders like this?

Pence has long been known as a homophobe. And rabid homophobes are sometimes self-hating gay men. Some gay celebrities have openly speculated that Pence is gay (example here).

I would not be surprised if, in his heart of hearts, Pence has long known he has "urges" about men but has never acted on them. Instead, he prays and prays to make them go away.

At the same time, openly gay men in a society that is increasingly LGBT-tolerant could make him particularly uncomfortable. So the best way to stop it would be to keep it out of sights as much as possible, and if LGBT people don't have LGBT rights, then that makes everything so much easier. Out of sight, out of mind.

So we'll probably never know if Pence really is gay or bi, but I think it's fair to say that speculations about his true sexual orientation are not unwarranted. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.