Is Andrew Sullivan Kicking Off A Media Frenzy Over Kagan’s Sexuality?
Is President Obama going to manage to get Elena Kagan confirmed to the Supreme Court without addressing her sexuality? Well, not if Andrew Sullivan has anything to do with it. Sullivan attacked Kagan’s sexuality, or the lack of public mention of it, in a series of posts yesterday, with a ferocity that was reminiscent of his determination to find out the true parentage of Trig Palin. It definitely got a lot of people’s attention (it didn’t hurt that Google was apparently interested also). Here is the thrust of Sullivan’s argument:
[W]e have been told by many that she is gay … and no one will ask directly if this is true and no one in the administration will tell us definitively.
In a word, this is preposterous – a function of liberal cowardice and conservative discomfort. It should mean nothing either way. Since the issue of this tiny minority – and the right of the huge majority to determine its rights and equality – is a live issue for the court in the next generation, and since it would be bizarre to argue that a Justice’s sexual orientation will not in some way affect his or her judgment of the issue, it is only logical that this question should be clarified. It’s especially true with respect to Obama. He has, after all, told us that one of his criteria for a Supreme Court Justice is knowing what it feels like to be on the wrong side of legal discrimination.
It should mean nothing either way (actually, it should probably fall in the realm of personal privacy) but of course it does more so now because Sullivan has turned his high watt internet spotlight on the issue. Add to that the fact that DADT and gay marriage are always hot button political issues and may go before the Supreme Court in the next decade and likely what you have is a story that is not going away. Furthermore, I have to wonder whether Obama has painted himself into a bit of a corner in his attempt not to address it. For a couple of reasons. In yesterday’s announcement of Kagan’s nomination Obama opted to “emphasize biography rather than ideology.”
She understands the law “as it affects the lives of ordinary people,” he said, adding that her presence will make the court “more reflective of us as a people than ever before.”
Which is likely Obama’s way of taking the glare off Kagan’s lack of paper trail. But if the focus turns to her “real life” in the “real world” it may invite focus on her personal life…judging by the fact both the Wall St. Journal and the New York Times ran pictures of Kagan playing 16 inch softball in college today the personal life interest appears to be there, and likely will only grow between now and the hearings. There’s also the fact that back in April the White House forced CBS to pull a blog post report that Kagan was gay and out of the closet.
A White House spokesman, Ben LaBolt, said he complained to CBS because the column “made false charges.” Domenech later added an update to the post: “I have to correct my text here to say that Kagan is apparently still closeted — odd, because her female partner is rather well known in Harvard circles.”
Odd that the White House would feel the need to react so strongly to that report moreover because in doing so they probably singlehandedly made it more of an issue than it otherwise might have been. Add to that the main qualm on the right about Kagan, which is that she tried to restrict military recruiters from the Harvard based on her opposition to DADT, an issue the Obama administration doesn’t have the greatest record on. And then add to that the fact that Kagan is not likely going to face much opposition from the left or the right and therefore the cablers and the blogosphere will need to latch on to something controversial, (Michael Triplett explores how they might approach it here) and I suspect what you have is a perfect storm that could easily result in a national conversation about gay rights.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
