Sunday, April 18, 2010

Do they think there's anything wrong with that?

Solicitor General Elena Kagan is widely reported to be the front-runner to be nominated by President Obama to the Supreme Court vacancy I described here.

Last week, a blogger writing on the CBS News website called Kagan a lesbian. White House spokespeople called that a "lie" and a "false charge". CBS removed the statement, for which it admitted to having insufficient "evidence".

They make it sound as though Kagan had been accused of murder! Accepting for the sake of argument that CBS's statement was inaccurate, it would have been better for Obama's staff to describe it as such.

If she is straight, the inaccurate statement is, as I see it, no worse than saying that she had been dean of Yale's law school, rather than (as is actually the case) Harvard's.

Be the change you want to see in the world, Mr. Obama. If you are truly committed to LGBT rights, rather than merely interested in courting the support of those of us who are LGBT, stop talking (either directly or through spokespeople) in the language of the homophobes.

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