srparedon – editorials (archive)

June 2004

Veterans of earlier pride marches, parades, and demonstrations can easily lament the relatively apolitical, non-confrontational tone of many of this June’s pride celebrations. No longer are pride events rowdy gatherings of sexual outlaws demanding an end to legal and political persecution. Instead, they have become “family friendly” events aimed at demonstrating our normality– and peddling a plethora of rainbow hoopla to our new “market niche.”

It is understandable that some regret the loss of pride’s edginess. But nostalgic sentiment should not so cloud our judgment that we romanticize a past marred by rampant anti-gay bigotry.… Continue reading →

May 2004

Bravo’s hit cable series “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” is a remarkable phenomenon. In it, five homosexuals offer grooming and decorating tips to an un-hip heterosexual guy. By following gay advice about hair removal and puff pastry, the straight guy’s previously slovenly life is, supposedly, transformed into something more fabulous than it was before his queer make-over.

At first, “Queer Eye” seems an advance for the gay cause– who’d have thought just a decade ago that an overt gay sensibility would be so embraced by those marketing television shows and all the products they… Continue reading →

April 2004

The current national debate about gay marriage has been clouded by muddled thinking– from all sides. And the key confounding issue is the role of sex in our lives and law.

Those leading the crusade against gay marriage are inspired by the Religious Right; to them, traditional marriage sanctifies otherwise sinful behavior– sex. Same-sex marriage would bless gay sex, a religious anathema to the phobic Right, so gay marriage must be opposed. Thus, we endure the Bush Administration preaching the virtues of secular government to occupied Islamic lands, while simultaneously campaigning to enshrine fundamentalist religious… Continue reading →

March 2004

It is difficult to get people to think rationally about how the law should, and should not, deal with adolescent sexual expression.

In most states, any time a person under a certain age (which varies from 14 to 21) has sex, a crime– by definition– has occurred. Consent is deemed irrelevant; headlines that blare, “Child Rape!” are applied both to cases wherein horrific violence has been suffered and to cases involving only mutually consentual affection. Indeed, we increasingly read of adolescents’ consentual sex with other adolescents being branded “rape” and prosecuted as a heinous crime.… Continue reading →

February 2004

Fear is tyranny’s greatest weapon. Tyrants treat a few especially brutally, counting on fear to keep others docile and compliant, afraid of the fate that would befall them should they challenge those in power.

History is replete with examples of fear used to magnify political power. And one need not be a totalitarian despot such as Hitler or Stalin to utilize fear in this way. Joseph McCarthy, the crusading anti-Communist US Senator, routinely bullied politicians, journalists, and artists by intimating that should anyone cross him, they would end up on his ever-lengthening list of suspects.… Continue reading →

January 2004

One of the central roles of traditional marriage has been to signal that married partners were each other’s sexual property. Indeed, until recently, only marital sex was socially sanctioned and legally permissible. Fornication and adultery laws, along with social stigma (especially for women), underscored that one of the prime benefits of marriage was access to sex.

Such rigid regulation of sexuality made some sense at a time when male/female couples had no effective contraception and most women had little or no financial independence; by offering protection to economically vulnerable women and children, marriage promoted desirable… Continue reading →