But, reading this article by Jeff Jacoby (whom I've never heard of until today) gives me heart.
The article is nonsense for the most part but the heartening thing about it is how circuitous "proper" homophobes these days must be in their writing. (I am not claiming that the good Mr. Jacoby is homophobic; I couldn't do that credibly since I don't know him, but his writing stands out).
Back on Feb 1, 1960, the New York Times wrote an article entitled "Negro Sitdowns Stir Fear Of Wider Unrest in South". One of the lines there is:
The only arrests reported involved forty-three of the demonstrators. They were seized on a sidewalk outside a Woolworth store at Raleigh shopping center. Charged with trespassing, they posted $50 bonds and were released.A mere 43 were arrested!
They also quoted a gentleman saying:
Mayor William G. Enloe of Raleigh termed it "regrettable that some of our young Negro students would risk endangering these relations by seeking to change a long-standing custom in a manner that is all but destined to fail."
Mr. Enloe was wrong, of course. The interesting thing to me is how he put it. That was just a naked (albeit sort of cultured) way of saying, "hey Negroe, you're just not getting the same rights as us, period."
If Jacoby's article had been written in the same manner, it would have been as nakedly homophobic as this article shows the naked racism of the 60's.
These days, Jacoby if forced to use pseudo-psychological arguments about "projection" to try and intellectually villify a group of people. His argument is weak to start and diluted further with his freshman level psychological analysis. But it's sure a nice thing that that's what he's reduced to using. We don't have to suffer mainstream media tirades using hateful language and justifications. Anti-gay rights demagogues have to hide behind weak arguments like "projection" to make their points.
Times have changed for the better.
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