elementropy

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Yes And No

Majikthise:

Yet, exposing a vicious homophobe might have good effects. Discrediting a homophobe as a hypocrite helps to discredit the homophobic ideology. Moreover, unseating this vicious bigot might prevent him from harming gays and fomenting further bigotry. Outing such a person would expose hypocrisy, which is a morally good outcome. It may also be morally relevant to the general public to learn that their leader is being hypocritical about values they hold dear. But it might also be hypocritical of me to violate the person's right to privacy in order to expose him. This is a difficult problem, but these concerns simply don't apply to the Guckert scandal.

It is not homophobic to publicize the fact that Guckert's was an escort, nor is the publicity an invasion of his privacy--these facts are neither private nor irrelevant to the current debacle.

Yes.

Andrew Sullivan:

I haven't written about it because I agree completely with Glenn. The substantive case against Gannon is trivial; the irrelevant case against him (the one that's fueled this story) is that he's gay, has allegedly been (or still may be) a prostitute, and may not agree with everything the gay left believes (although I agree with David Corn that the evidence that Gannon has written anything even remotely "anti-gay" is laughable). The real scandal is the blatant use of homophobic rhetoric by the self-appointed Savonarolas of homo-left-wingery. It's an Animal Farm moment: the difference between a fanatic on the gay left and a fanatic on the religious right is harder and harder to discern.

Uh, no. Are you fucking kidding me, Sully? I guess you're still upset that someone on the "gay left" re-posted your personal ads. This isn't exactly the same thing, but you should ask yourself whether the Gannon-Guckert saga hits close to home because he's gay, or because he's a reactionary hack who happens to be gay yet serves the forces of homophobia more or less dutifully -- something that goes beyond mere sad irony to the realms of fucking insane contradiction.