Mainstream Democrat - newly appointed assistant secretary for Housing and Urban Development Roberta Achtenberg's public display of her lesbian lifestyle - Editorial

National Review, June 21, 1993

IF Roberta Achtenberg, newly confirmed as assistant secretary for HUD, were a public official in public and a lesbian in private, we would consider the latter point none of our business. But she lives out her private life in public, and as an elected official she has taken lesbian militancy about as far as it can go.

"In her public life," insists California Senator Barbara Boxer, "she's mainstream." Well, during her career in San Francisco Miss Achtenberg rounded the National Center for Lesbian Rights; urged that $500,000 in public money be given to a homosexual center for teenagers; opposed the closing of gay bathhouses; and led a campaign against the Boy Scouts for refusing to accept homosexual scoutmasters. Far from upholding the right of privacy (the nominal goal of the gay-rights movement), she has held that private organizations have no right of privacy against gay claims.

Last year she rode in the Gay Pride Parade with her lover, Mary Morgan, and the seven-year-old boy they jointly bring up (Judge Morgan--remember, we're talking San Francisco-having conceived the poor child by artificial insemination), smooching in a convertible bearing the legend "celebrating family values." Tolerance is one thing. This is something else entirely. Perversion is no excuse for vulgarity.

In short Miss Achtenberg presented a target only Republicans could have missed. Her defeat would have needed a mere nudge a salty Dole wisecrack would have made headlines, reignited Bill Clinton's gay problem with a vengeance, and scared the Senate into voting down the nomination. But it was left to Jesse Helms to lead the opposition; Miss Achtenberg duly accused him of anti-Semitism.

Is Miss Achtenberg in the mainstream? We don't think so. And even though the Republicans may not like it, they will just have to get used to being on the popular side of cultural and moral issues.