Open the Closets on Capitol Hill

[bryant69]

There's an article at Salon by Louis Bayard which discusses the intersection of Homosexuality and Politics.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/10/07/gay_politicians/

" The decision to come out is personal. So is the decision to run for office. Why should the second choice be privileged over the first? Why should homosexuality be privileged over heterosexuality? Why should a same-sex partner (Foley has apparently had one for many years) be any less a subject of discussion than a wife or husband?

The answer is as dismaying as it is obvious. Some 33 years after the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses, our mainstream media persist in believing that something unnatural, something embarrassing, something other adheres to the condition of being gay. Or else -- and here I'm bending over as far backward as I can go -- they believe that equating a gay relationship with a straight relationship is simply too controversial a statement to make in the pages of a major metropolitan newspaper or over the airwaves of a major commercial network.

They are wrong. Worse, they are patronizing. An America that, by and large, accepts gay musicians, gay actors, gay authors, gay talk-show hostesses, the gay children of politicians and even the occasional gay politician can be trusted, I believe, not to blanch at the prospect of one more. And if, in fact, a candidate's sexuality proves to be a deal-breaker for voters, then let the deal be broken. Better to be shown the door than smuggled through under a cloud of pretense."

Something worth considering, even if you don't agree with it.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[MADem]

1. It's a valid point and well argued. NT

[bryant69]

2. kicking for saturday

Bryant

[dsc]

3. There is sadly a huge difference between how things should be

and how things are. We still have had exactly one elected, as opposed to reelected, gay or lesbian in Congress (Tammy Baldwin). That speaks volumes.