The White Peril 白禍

I like John Corvino's latest article posted to IGF, but, then, I like his writing in general. I could have done without the Rosa Parks analogy, which he crashes through the guardrail and follows in flames as it rolls down the ravine (just to be gallant and cover his bad conceit-making with my own). His priorities are in the right place, though, and I join him in wondering how other people can possibly fail to see this stuff:

Is that name difference silly? Yes, it's silly � maybe even insulting. But when health benefits are denied to committed same-sex couples, when a person can't get bereavement leave upon the death of her same-sex partner; when loving couples are split apart because one partner is a foreigner and can't get citizenship, that's far worse than silly or insulting � it's downright cruel. I contend that we have a fighting chance at ending such cruelty, and that once we do so we'll have an even better chance at ending the silly name-difference (again, see Scandinavia).

I still don't agree that attaining marriage under that name must, must, must be the goal. Even if we accept that legal and social circumstances are unequal now, it's possible that opening marriage to gays is not the solution in the best interest of the larger society (including us gays). If the child-rearing function really is central to marriage, perhaps it needs to be reemphasized through stiffened divorce laws and greater penalties for parents who make spurious accusations at each other in custody battles, for example.

The interference in individuals' ability to make contracts that dictate the disposal of their possessions and persons if they're incapacitated isn't even a given everywhere; as Corvino says, we need to start there. Forget even the part about "recognition of our relationships" in the general sense, or at least, hold it in abeyance. Accusations like the one in the hate mail with which Corvino opens his article can only come from people who don't see the current social and political climate for what it really is, a phenomenon that may be partially explained by their tendency to reach for invective when they should be assessing and countering arguments.

Along those lines, I'm sorry to see that Maggie Gallagher is the latest columnist who took pay by the Bush administration to plug programs and is only now disclosing it. Gallagher is not my favorite person, as you might imagine. She has always struck me as principled, though, and I've cringed whenever I've seen someone from my team decide that the way to provide a witty and substantive refutation of one of her pieces is to call her a bitch. What she's done isn't an ethical infraction of epic proportions, but it doesn't speak well of her--how does one forget about a contract for two grand, exactly? And even if her support for the program was there for the asking, anyway, is it impossible to believe that she might have been inclined not to publicize such flaws as it might have had once she and the government had an understanding?

What this does do is give people who could learn from Gallagher's arguments a new, easy reason to dismiss her as a bankrupt thinker. That's not exactly what we need on either side at the moment. (The Gallagher story was foreshadowed by Instapundit and Drudge.)

I don't agree with Michael about marriage policy, but I think he's dead right about this:

[We're part of everyday life.] And it�s our job as gay people to let people know we exist, that we live and work with them, and that we�re family members. You don�t do yourself or anyone else any good when you cry �unfair� from your closet.

You either stay closeted or get to complain that people aren't doing enough to make your gay life easier, but not both. It's perfectly honorable to believe that your sexual orientation is a private matter and live by it. You might (in fact, you almost inevitably would) think gay activists are idiots, but you wouldn't bitch that society is standing in your way. I'm also not referring to what people do on-line--there are lots of reasons people don't use their own names that have nothing to do with embarrassment at being known as gay.

What I mean are the types like this guy a few months ago--I thought I'd drop my drink right there--who thought that he'd have an easier time coming out to his parents if gay marriage were legal, 'cause, see, then he could go with his new spouse and simultaneously come out and reassure his parents that he had someone to take care of him. He had obviously given this some thought and, in the manner of all thoroughly insane people, presented it in the even tones of one who knows he's being perfectly rational. I'm afraid I myself may have reacted like a raving lunatic: "You think the folks are going to take it better if you present your entrance into what they consider a degradation of a sacred institution as a fait accompli? That that's going to mitigate their anger at having been lied to for your entire adult life that work kept you too busy to socialize and you just hadn't found the right girl?" The hardships involved in being gay make integrity more, not less, necessary.