In previous presidential campaigns, reporters have often asked about candidates’ personal matters, such as drug use and extra-marital affairs.

Such questions are intended to reveal the individuals’ character, and they have received responses ranging from Bill Clinton’s 1991 remark regarding his marijuana use, “I smoked, but I did not inhale,” to George W. Bush’s refusal to answer any questions about his past drug and alcohol abuse, other than to say he made mistakes in his past.

Voters have now also come to expect candidates to expose their financial and health backgrounds. In this year’s race, because John McCain, if elected, would be 72 upon taking office, not only do some want to see his medical records, they also feel that all candidates should be subject to the latest diagnostic tests (a brain-scan for example) to see if they show signs of Alzheimer’s (such as former President Ronald Reagan exhibited while in office) and/or dementia.

But some take asking personal questions to even greater lengths, asking, for instance, whether candidates should also reveal whether they have ever had or desired to have a same-gender sexual experience.

This is less due to lurid interest in candidates’ sex lives than to interest in whether candidates appreciate those whose gender identity or sexual orientation does not conform to the norm, the presumption being that a candidate who has experienced same-sex attraction would be more sensitive to GLBT issues.

Political consultants, of course, see candid answers to this question as political suicide, and so we currently have a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding them. No presidential candidate has ever admitted to having had a same-gender sexual experience, and there are no accounts of reporters ever having asked the question. The closest we came was in 1991, when Bill and Hillary Clinton admitted in a “60 Minutes” interview that they had a strong marriage, but there had been rough spots, indicating that some of the rumors of Bill’s infidelity were true.

Unless reporters ask these questions, the best we can do is speculate. For example, some hypothesize that Hillary is a lesbian because she went to a women’s college and is a feminist, although this profile also applies to the president’s mother, Barbara Bush. Others say that John McCain, while a POW in Vietnam, may have been involved in or witnessed same-gender sexual activity, although in his memoirs, he never addresses the issue. And one blogger claims he had sex with Sen. Barack Obama, although the Obama campaign has vigorously denied such.

Obviously, such speculation is of dubious value, as is, some people also feel, asking direct questions. After all, even if a candidate has had a same-gender experience or attraction, he or she will deny it, and anyway, given the recent “outings” of several conservative operatives, being gay doesn’t reflect how one will vote on GLBT issues.

Yet, to the extent that the answer gives us a better understanding of how candidates view sexuality, it’s a question that we should ask.