- Image via Wikipedia
Is Elena Kagan gay or not? That is the question everyone is asking everyone else but Ms. Kagan.
My knee jerk response to the question of her sexuality is that it isn’t anyone’s business. However on further and deeper consideration it occurs to me that it is our business if she is gay.
Ms Kagan has accepted a nomination to the highest court in our country, she will be making decisions of the utmost importance which will affect all Americans. It is safe to say that in the next decade the Supreme Court will be asked to make some decisions regarding homosexuals.
I’m against outing anyone who doesn’t want to be outed. However, Ms Kagan has become a public figure by accepting the nomination. As someone who may hold considerable power it is her obligation to be forthcoming with the answer to this question.
The assumption seems to be that indeed she is a lesbian. If that is true, and not that there is anything wrong with it, then why isn’t she saying so? Is she ashamed of her sexuality? If she is gay and remains in the closet will she vote against gay rights?
She wouldn’t be the first.
Roy Ashburn, Republican senator who recently announced he was gay because he got busted, has voted against every gay rights bill put before him. And he only made number 5 on the top ten list of anti-gay gays.
The right might want to take Ms Kagan’s sexuality and make it an issue but the left has an obligation to ask this question so that she doesn’t use the court to hide her sexuality.
I hope she is gay, I hope she stands up and announces to the world “Yes, I am” like so many courageous men and women leading everyday lives.
It takes courage to come out of the closet. There will be a shit storm if she states that she is gay, no doubt about that. But if she refuses to answer the question and she is gay she is doing a horrible disservice to gay rights and to young men and women everywhere who struggle with their own sexuality.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Andrew Sullivan on Elena Kagan’s “emotional orientation” – emotional orientation? (althouse.blogspot.com)
- Best Friend Testimony: Elena Kagan is not a lesbian (bilerico.com)
- Elena Kagan: Not Gay After All? (outsidethebeltway.com)
- Does it matter if Elena Kagan is gay? (beliefnet.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=48b1358f-08df-4e98-a74e-0dc2c5a491a8)
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m going to go out on a limb and say most definitely. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
To me, there’s a fine line here between speculating about orientation and treating long-time single people as suspect. The “are you gay?” question is just an extension of the “why haven’t you married?” question.
The truth is, we’ve never treated orientation as germane to the suitability of a person to serve on the Supreme Court. If we had, every prior nominee would have been asked, “OK, we know you have an opposite-sex spouse, but not every long-married person is straight. Please explain: Are you straight, bisexual or gay?”
We’ve also never asked nominees about how their personal experience (or lack of it) with marriage will impact their rulings on marriage, speculating that married justices will be biased against the interests of unmarried folks, or vice versa.
Besides the gay/bi/straight categories of sexuality, there is also a range of sexual interest. If, for any reason, Kagan leans toward being asexual and content with single life, I don’t think that’s any of my business.
Just my 2-cents worth….
The Supreme Court is the one place where sexual orientation is irrelevant. Decisions made by justices should be on the basis of law and nothing else. Where it gets tricky, and the main reason Republicans and Democrats battle over nominations, is in the interpretation of law.
Despite their protestations to the contrary, Republicans want judges who will hand down decisions consistent with conservative philosophy. Democrats prefer a more liberal approach. The end result is that recent decisions seem to be implementing a conservative agenda disguised as Supreme Court Rulings. Despite promises to give heavy weight to precedent, Justice Roberts seems to ignore precedence when he finds in convenient.
But I digress, Kegan’s sexuality has no bearing on her nomination. There is nothing to know that should come under consideration as to whether or not she is qualified to take a seat on the Supreme Court.
I know this is an old post, but you just commented on my blog today for the first time (I think? Though I do remember the KoQ blog, though.)
I’m kind of like you, on the one hand I don’t think it’s anyones business.
I don’t really “care” if she’s gay. I suppose if I was a Fundamentalist Christian Right Wing Nut Job (not that there’s anything wrong with that…) I would want to make sure she didn’t make the country “gay” by allowing Gay Marriage or whatever Gay issues happen to come up before the Supreme Court.
I have to admit that I’m out of my depth talking about this issue.
I don’t care who is gay, unless I have the potential of sleeping with him. (I’ve already mourned the loss of the possibility that I’ll meet Ricky Martin back stage at a concert and have sexo rizado insano for one night.)
But I have no issues with gay marriage, parenting, adoption, whatever except that they don’t get the same rights that straights do.
Now that I’ve lived to see a black president, I guess the next big hurdle for America is voting for an openly gay politician.
Get over it, y’all. Bigotry is not ok. And to those people who use religion to back up their bigotry, they need to remember that the bible also tells us not to judge.
Leave that to God.
*getting off soapbox*
Sorry for ranting, LOL.