Misplaced sensitivities?
"The comparison of race and sexual orientation is a challenging thing to talk about. It is a real hot button issue. The last thing we want to do is alienate potential allies in the African-American community."
The above quote is from Cathy Renna, news media director for the
Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, explaining why GLAAD
pursued a strategy of, as the Washington
Blade put it, "quietly reminding reporters and columnists" of
Sen. Trent Lott's history of anti-gay comments rather than loudly
publicizing Lott's homophobia, during the recent media frenzy over
the Mississippi senator's expressed nostalgia for racial
segregation. For the record, the major national news outlets seem
to have completely ignored Lott's homophobic history while
reporting on his racist remarks (the Blade story was headlined
"Lott furor obscures anti-gay comments"), suggesting the failure of
a "quiet strategy" conditioned on not offending civil rights
activists by drawing too explicit a parallel between racism and
homophobia. But wait, aren't LGBT organizations constantly berating
gays and lesbians for not doing more to fight racism as part of
our agenda?
--Stephen H. Miller