Most of us, I suspect, believe that closeted gay politicians who support anti-gay legislation and do nothing to support their own are tragic and despicable figures. And yet I’ve always felt that it’s a basic human and professional right to be closeted if you so choose. However loathsome or pathetic the reason for this or that gay person wanting to live secretly, privacy is privacy. I understand and sympathize with those who’ve sought to “out” these hypocrites, but I would never be party to outing on my own steam.

That said, the headliner in Kirby Dick‘s Outrage, a Tribeca Film Festival doc (showing tomorrow night) that outs closeted D.C. politicians, is certainly Florida governor Charlie Crist. He reportedly supported anti-gay marriage legislation and campaigned in Florida for John McCain last summer and fall (and, if I recall correctly, was floated as a prospective candidate to be McCai’s Vice-Presidential running mate). He’s also on the short list as a prospective 2012 Republican Presidential candidate.

In a 4.22 entry, Wilshire & Washington‘s Ted Johnson reports that Kirby’s doc “recounts a string of stories from Florida’s alternative press, along with anonymous interviews with people who claim to have had conversations with a man who boasted of having sex with Crist.” The Florida governor, he reports, has been “asked about rumors [along these lines and] denied them.”

“The doc sought out Kelly Crosby Heyniger, one of Crist’s girlfriends until the end of 2007, who didn’t appear on camera but gave them a statement about what broke them up: ‘I think I should just keep my mouth shut. Call me in ten years and I will tell you a great story.’

“One of the final scenes of the movie is of Crist’s wedding last July. In a bit of judicious editing, a la Michael Moore, Crist tells a reporter, ‘If your wife can’t help you in a campaign, who can?'”