From: WillNich@aol.com
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 13:20:27 EDT
Subject: Editorial

Louisville Courier-Journal, July 21, 1998

Politics of Bigotry

     For America's gays, election season is feeling more like open season.
The Republican party -- or part of it, anyway -- has evidently decided to make
homosexuals the scapegoat of choice in '98.
     A majority of Americans are still uneasy with homosexuality, making it a
potent insecurity for the GOP to exploit.  Why else would something as trivial
as the ambassadorship to Luxembourg have become such a major point of
contention?
     Republicans say that James Hormel, a gay multimillionaire philanthropist
clearly qualified for the job, shouldn't get it because he'll cause major
global trouble by pushing a gay agenda in a tiny European hamlet.  According
to one conservative policy analyst, Mr. Hormel's agenda "represents a clear
and present danger" to the U.S.
     Mr. Hormel, of course, should have been waved through months ago.
Instead, he's caught up in a high-profile Christian Coalition-driven stunt to
prove to the folks back home who can be the biggest bigot.
     Until recently, congressional small-mindedness about homosexuality mostly
simmered under the surface, evidenced only by the occasional Freudian slip --
as when Rep. Dick Armey referred to openly gay Rep. Barney Frank as "Barney
Fag" while speaking to reporters in 1995.
     Now hostility to gays is actually emerging in legislation.  A House
proposal that could be introduced this week would reverse the executive order
made last month by President Clinton to protect gay employees from
discrimination in federal jobs.
     Consistent with comments last month by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott,
Christian groups ran full-page ads last week in major papers underscoring the
message that homosexuality is a disease that should be cured.
     This latest gay-baiting strategy represents an affront not just to gays
but also to the scientific community.  Sure, one could fake homosexual
behavior (though it's hard to fathom why anyone would want to in our hostile
culture).  But the medical community hasn't treated homosexuality as a disease
for over 20 years, and research this decade has begun to uncover genetic and
physiological differences that coincide with homosexuality.
     Intolerance and discrimination are un-American.  But for some
Republicans, inclusion and dialogue are apparently worth abandoning in order
to pander to public insecurity.

END