Anti-Climacus

GAY BASHING: from The Nation, no less. The two main fallacies perpetrated by the article are 1. That any moral system that does not permit people to behave however they want is prima facie wrong and 2. That gays must refuse to become part of the rest of society if they are to be good and decent people. Let the outrage begin!

"Of course, liberal society is not a monolith. Some of its members remain open to self-examination and social change, but others have retreated from this critical edge, and a powerful backlash culture reinforces their flight. Homocons appeal to retreating liberals in a way that radical queers do not. For one thing, they don't seem all that conservative. The fact that they are out and proud can make their most reactionary ravings seem vaguely progressive, and they maintain the illusion by the enemies they keep. The gay right is as fiercely opposed to religious fundamentalism as it is to queer theory, and this dual repudiation allows homocons to position themselves as independents whose only agenda is speaking "common sense." They pose as free thinkers fighting the orthodoxies of both the left and right. In fact, homocons are neither independent nor individualistic. They are neoconservatives in every respect--or would be were it not for the issue of homosexuality.

If only he were straight, Sullivan would fit snugly into the right-wing Weekly Standard. Like its editors, he is fiercely nationalistic, dedicated to the free market, antichoice and hostile to civil rights. Most homocons actually oppose laws that prohibit discrimination against gay people (Sullivan has called the issue of discrimination "a red herring"). And when it comes to sex, the gay right stands for a lifestyle that comes as close to the straight norm as it's possible for homos to get. Marriage, Sullivan has written, is the only alternative to "a life of meaningless promiscuity followed by eternal damnation." Recent revelations about his adventures on the Internet punctured his pose of respectability, and Sullivan has morphed into a champion of cruising. Still, his standard for proper behavior is the closest thing the gay right has to a motto: "virtually normal.""

Because, certainly, Sullivan's Catholic faith has no impact on his beliefs whatsoever, and if it did, that'd be wrong, right? I mean, who ever heard of using religion to help guide you through the important choices of life?

The part that is really beyond the pale, though, is the 'revelations of his adventures on the internet,' (a charge so vile I won't repeat it), which can never be mentioned except as a way of using his sexuality to discredit his political and moral views, exactly the sort of homophobia the good folks at The Nation are so against... right? right?