Monday, February 28, 2005

More on ‘Outing’

David Corn is no friend of “Jeff Gannon.” He has, however, written the definitive position piece on the topic, at least so far as two popular conservative bloggers are concerned. (One gay, the other one not.) Thus I feel compelled to return to the topic I had laid to rest a couple weeks back.

Outing.

Corn tells us that because “Jeff Gannon” was hardly a flame thrower, he’s no hypocrite:

Gannon/Guckert clearly was writing for a conservative audience. But he was hardly a flame-thrower on gay issues. His observation about Kerry was clumsy but not homophobic. Sure, he worked for an organization that supported an administration and party opposed to gay rights, and he was a Bush-backer. But does that automatically qualify him for outing?

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! The hypocrisy here is not in the product he puts out but in the fact that he works for an anti-gay organization and in favor of the anti-gay policies of an anti-gay administration. If he can keep it a secret, fine by me. But if I find out, it’s in my interest for the world to know.

Why? Because I want to normalize gay in every way. The closet never was and is no longer a normal place. Gay people are everywhere and in every walk of life. And I want everyone to know it. The stakes here are rather high. Dare I point out that the volume of anti-gay rhetoric has been heightened by the administration’s courting of its religiously conservative base?

Read the rest of "More on ‘Outing’" in the extended entry.

The tie

From the New York Times last week, via FreeRepublic.com. Nick Spano, who I knew some from my time working in Westchester County, won his Republican New York State Senate seat by 18 votes.

But he also achieved a more curious distinction: He broke a nationwide dead heat in state legislative seats. Counting Mr. Spano, the 2004 election made the count 3,657 Republicans and 3,656 Democrats; before last November, Republicans led by 64 seats. [my emphasis]

Yes, it’s winner take all, but we are in a tie. Democrats can win and take all without selling their souls (or abandoning gays), locally and nationally. Despite Howard Dean’s early missteps.

Watch how fast the laws change now

First ChoicePoint, now Bank of America. But this time:

Bank of America said Friday the [lost] tapes contained information on 1.2 million federal employees, including some members of the U.S. Senate and about 900,000 Defense Department employees.

Watch how fast the laws change now! There a commenter, a COO of a commercial bank says, “More laws are not needed...all of that ‘confidential information’ you are worried about banks keeping is REQUIRED by both law and regulation!”

I stand by my earlier suggestion. Check your credit.