Come out, come out, wherever you are
Andrew Sullivan is often my source for political analysis; I should probably look around for more pundits, but he tends to wrap up analysis from all over the spectrum, whether he agrees with it or not. I say this just to point out why, for roughly the 7,000th day in a row, I’m linking to him again, on the topic of this nifty gallup poll:
Andrew’s take:
If gays are really serious about marriage rights, they need to accelerate the process of coming out…
Yes, donate and campaign and blog. But for all of those of you out there who are gay and do none of this, one simple political act can do much more: let your family, friends and co-workers know who you are. If you don’t, please quit complaining about your lack of civil rights.
As a straight dude, I don’t quite have Andrew’s perspective. But he and I both live in parts of the country where homosexuality is more than tolerated; it is often embraced. I have dozens of gay friends; I like to say I was raised by a collection of gay “aunts.” If my son were to come out as gay, I’d be all for it. It’s not like that in every family on the east coast, but a gay man is certainly going to have an easier time coming out in New York or Philadelphia than, say, Patonga, Oklahoma. (I should point out that I know nothing about Patonga, Oklahoma; it might be the West Hollywood of Blaine County, for all I know. I literally went to Google Maps and found a random city in central Oklahoma.)
Any place where the majority of the population knows no homosexuals (either because they simply don’t live there, or are closeted) is a place where a gay man or woman is least likely to want to come out. So while Andrew’s solution, “Come out, dammit,” would probably do good things over the long-term, it carries with it a pretty high personal cost for the homosexual individuals themselves.
