Marc Ambinder: Sexual Politics and the Supreme Court
[Marc Ambinder is the politics editor of The Atlantic. He has covered Washington for ABC News and the Hotline, and he is chief political consultant to CBS News. He has 11,171 followers on Twitter. Wait, 11,172.]
Solicitor General Elena Kagan, the woman who tops President Obama's short list for the Supreme Court, is the subject of a baffling whisper campaign among both gay rights activists and social conservatives: those whispering assume she's gay, and they want her -- or someone -- the media! -- to acknowledge it.
Human beings tend to conflate sexual orientation and diversity within gender. A woman who has short hair, favors pant suits, hasn't married, and doesn't seem to be in a relationship must be a lesbian. (It is ironic and disheartening that the first female solicitor general ever isn't enough of a woman for some people.) Former Attorney General Janet Reno and current Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano are victims of this confusion. They're victims, not because being gay labeled bad, falsely or otherwise, is shameful, but because the intention behind the labeling is often nefarious and stereotypical. Gay groups want to appropriate and use these public figures to advance a cause, and conservatives, many of them, consider homosexuality and gender non-conformity to be fundamental character flaws.
Kagan hasn't made matters any easier for people who don't see nuance. She is an active and open supporter of gay rights. This might mean that she'd trigger a filibuster in the Senate because Republicans like Jeff Sessions consider vocal support for gay causes to be extreme. Kagan charmed Sessions on her way to becoming solicitor general, but Republicans may well argue that even having expressed a position on a gay rights issue that will likely end up in court -- such as same-sex marriage -- is disqualifying. The trick there is that the default position is not having no position -- it's tantamount to opposing same-sex marriage....
So everyone is confused. Ideally, we wouldn't ask the question because it matters to no one. Less ideally, though it matters to gay rights groups and social conservatives, we'd not ask the question because it shouldn't matter. But are we at the point, right now, where being gay doesn't matter?
Read entire article at The Atlantic
Solicitor General Elena Kagan, the woman who tops President Obama's short list for the Supreme Court, is the subject of a baffling whisper campaign among both gay rights activists and social conservatives: those whispering assume she's gay, and they want her -- or someone -- the media! -- to acknowledge it.
Human beings tend to conflate sexual orientation and diversity within gender. A woman who has short hair, favors pant suits, hasn't married, and doesn't seem to be in a relationship must be a lesbian. (It is ironic and disheartening that the first female solicitor general ever isn't enough of a woman for some people.) Former Attorney General Janet Reno and current Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano are victims of this confusion. They're victims, not because being gay labeled bad, falsely or otherwise, is shameful, but because the intention behind the labeling is often nefarious and stereotypical. Gay groups want to appropriate and use these public figures to advance a cause, and conservatives, many of them, consider homosexuality and gender non-conformity to be fundamental character flaws.
Kagan hasn't made matters any easier for people who don't see nuance. She is an active and open supporter of gay rights. This might mean that she'd trigger a filibuster in the Senate because Republicans like Jeff Sessions consider vocal support for gay causes to be extreme. Kagan charmed Sessions on her way to becoming solicitor general, but Republicans may well argue that even having expressed a position on a gay rights issue that will likely end up in court -- such as same-sex marriage -- is disqualifying. The trick there is that the default position is not having no position -- it's tantamount to opposing same-sex marriage....
So everyone is confused. Ideally, we wouldn't ask the question because it matters to no one. Less ideally, though it matters to gay rights groups and social conservatives, we'd not ask the question because it shouldn't matter. But are we at the point, right now, where being gay doesn't matter?