Explaining Myself. A reader shares the
following:
I find your columns on the Independent Gay Forum smart and refreshing. However, the jabs at what you call "the gay left" are just divisive and unnecessary. We shouldn't lower ourselves to that level -- even if our adversaries do.
Here's how I responded (after thanking him for his positive
comments):
While I understand your point, I can't say I concur. Politically speaking, there is a gay left, which dominates gay political discourse. While most gays are moderate liberals, in the political center, or on the center-right, it is the gay left that has become situated as our institutional voice.
In the marketplace of ideas, vigorous debate is a good thing. And part of debating ideas is to identify the viewpoints being represented. I happen to believe that gay leftists, while they may call themselves "progressives," are actually quite reactionary -- politically speaking, it's a perspective that supports backward-focused socialist economics and, frankly, illiberal policies (speech codes, group-based quotas, etc.). To challenge it, one must call it what it is. I don't mean to be confrontational for the sake of being confrontational. But neither should forthright debate be curtailed.
Another letter commented on a posting about Bill Simon's race
for California governor, in which I mentioned the poor record on
gay issues of another conservative from the Golden State, Ronald
Reagan. I had written, "Can you imagine Ronald Reagan supporting
gay adoptions or any kind of domestic partnerships?" The reader
berated me for ignoring Reagan's opposition to a voter initiative
that sought to ban gays from teaching in the state's public
schools. The reader wrote:
It seems peculiar for you to say this without noting that Reagan played a key role in defeating the anti-gay Briggs Initiative in 1978. Comparable? Perhaps not. But Reagan was a man of his time, and during his years there was no serious discussion of gay adoptions or partnership rights.
I replied:
Of course you're right. It had slipped my mind about Reagan's opposition to the Briggs initiative. I was, however, mindful of Reagan's silence on AIDS, and his alliance building with the religious right. As president, he chose to ignore the gay political movement that was becoming a major political force, as if it simply didn't exist.
It's fascinating to me that so many conservative Republicans just don't understand that being perceived as "anti-gay" now has a significant downside. Bob Dole, while running against Bill Clinton, seemed totally taken aback by the brouhaha when he returned a check from the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) and it cost him moderate support by making him look like a bigot. While campaigning in the primaries, George W. Bush was apparently unprepared to answer a straight-forward question on whether he'd meet with gay Republicans, saying no during a live interview (when his campaign had indicated yes), and then seeing controversy develop. And hapless Bill Simon thinks he can say one thing to LCR, and another to Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, and that no one is going to notice.
They are simply mystified that the political ground has shifted. It reminds me of the movie "Spartacus," when a shaken Roman general sputters to Laurence Olivier, when reporting his defeat to the rebel forces, "But they were just...slaves."
--Stephen H. Miller