Equating sexual orientation with ‘sex life’
Perhaps it’s naïveté, but I’ve been amazed by the outraged objections of many Good Liberals to the mere discussion of Elena Kagan’s sexual orientation. Without realizing it, they’ve completely internalized one of the most pernicious myths long used to demand that gay people remain in the closet: namely, that to reveal one’s sexual orientation is to divulge one’s “sex life.” From the first moment that Ben Domenech wrote his now infamous CBS post mistakenly stating that Kagan is “openly gay” — something which a slew of Good Liberals at Harvard also long believed — the furious reactions have been extremely eye-opening about how many people continue to equate sexual orientation with one of those dark, sexualized topics that all polite and decent people should be willing to avoid.
In objecting to Andrew Sullivan’s argument that asking about sexual orientation is completely innocuous and legitimate, Kevin Drum offers one of the most extreme examples yet of this well-intentioned though harmful confusion, which I had really thought (but no longer do) had been left behind in the 1980s (which is why classic 1980s closet defender Ed Koch is now also advocating it).
Very interesting perspective by Glen Greenwald. It does seem to be true that defenders of a certain ideal or position can do unintentional harm to their own cause. Definitely worth a read.