How much of the Mark Foley scandal’s impact is due to the fact that he’s a gay man who preyed on young boys?….It’s tempting to put it all down to hypocrisy. The Republican Party has gone to such lengths to demonize homosexuality that it must pain the leadership to reveal that such a thing as a gay Republican congressman could even exist. The party has stigmatized gay people as “them,” not “us” — as a class of people whose “lifestyle” is unsavory and whose committed relationships must never be recognized, lest the republic instantly crumble to dust.
October 11, 2006 5:14 AM
