Yesterday, DC gay activist Phil Attey suggested on Facebook that a prominent Bush official had a gay relationship with Jeff Gannon. Chris Crain commented:
"I don't think it serves our cause to traffic in rumor and innuendo, especially about the private sex lives of other people. We ought to be better than that."
To which a chorus of people responded angrily that the enemies of gay people don't deserve to have private sex lives.
Sigh.
First -- we have no need for this tactic. We have the better arguments and the tide of history on our side. We need to be better about applying political pressure, but that pressure does not need to take the form of blackmail.
Second -- who decides who should be outed and for what reason? In other words, if a closeted gay politician votes against gay inclusion in hate crimes, does that justify dragging him out of the closet? Not everyone in the gay community agrees that passing hate crimes was needed. There are those in the community who think fighting for same sex marriage is a waste of time. We are not of one mind about everything, so who plays God and decides whose lives are to be messed with?
Finally -- what good will it do? Attey doesn't say how outing the Bush official or insinusating he is gay will move us closer to passing ENDA or repealing DOMA or DADT. Because it doesn't. Because outing is not about advancing politically. It's about revenge.
Crain is right. We are better than that.
2 comments:
I have to agree. My partner takes great glee when a politician gets "outed" and supports doing more of it. This gives me fits! I find it rather inane as it tends to drive people further from our cause of fairness.
"outing" is fairly similar in my view to hate crimes... who can commit a crime upon another without malice (hate)? Who can bring a sympathetic ear from another when you last dragged someone out of the closet by the ear?
Christopher, you raise a good point. Outing is grounded in the revenge motive, if not outright hatred. And can you think of a single equal right won from outing someone?
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