The gay vice squad

National Review, Oct 19, 1992

JOHN SCHLAFLY, 41-year-old lawyer son of

Phyllis Schlafly, has admitted that he is a homosexual, to great cackles at his mother's expense. Newsweek jeered that her "family life has been something less than the Ozzie and Harriet ideal so righteously extolled by conservatives." The columnist Richard Cohen censured her, if not for gay-bashing, well then for giving her "silent approval'' to gay-bashing.

In his column, Mr. Cohen casually mentioned a pertinent fact whose moral significance was lost on him: "A gay publication, New York's QW, had done a story, and certain journalists, myself included, had been sent anonymous announcements." The "story" that QW (stands for Queer Week) had done was an "outing"--a malicious exposure of John Schlafly to punish his mother for her opposition to gay-rights legislation. Mr. Cohen apparently saw nothing amiss in this method of dealing with political disagreement. It didn't strike him as suspicious that the notice he got was anonymous.

It was in response to his "outing" that Mr. Schlafly acknowledged his leanings. He did so with dignity and humor, defending his mother, the Republican platform, and Pat Buchanan against "screechy gay activists and Washington-based pressure groups." He said that he'd been amused by Mr. Buchanan's description of the Democratic Convention as an exercise in ideological cross-dressing, and that, as far as he knew, Mr. Buchanan is not disposed to bother gays and lesbians in their private lives.

True enough, and that's the difference between Mr. Buchanan, Dan Quayle, Pat Robertson, and most conservatives, on the one hand, and the gayliberal community on the other. It's hard to imagine the so-called gay-bashers and ayatollahs of the Right exposing a political foe as a homosexual 'though it's easy to imagine the media reaction if they did.

Yet the media, though still furious about McCarthyism after all these years, have dropped any qualms they once had about "outing." If any major news organ indicated disapproval of the indecency against the Schlaflys, we missed it. So much for privacy. Not to mention free speech and fair play.

"Outing" is what used to be known as blackmail. And thanks to the "silent approval" of good liberals, blackmail now hangs over one side in the debate on gay rights. It's an attempt to intimidate opposition, with the tacit support of the news media.