With the election of Mayor Lavelle and the re-election of Mayor Kleinschmidt, every news report I hear or read about them includes the terms "openly gay" or "openly lesbian." Having not gone through the experience of keeping key elements of myself private and then navigating the landscape of revealing these to family members, friends, coworkers and the like, I don't have the grounding necessary to comment. Nevertheless, the use of the word "openly" gives me some unease. It seems to suggest that the public still harkens back to some sort of unspoken compact with gay and lesbian polticians that the cost of being elected was silence.
As we in Chapel Hill and Carrboro strive to continue to lead in the progress toward a fairer and more tolerant society, maybe we can move from "openly gay mayor" and "openly lesbian mayor" to just "gay mayor" and "lesbian mayor". Then, who knows, maybe just "mayor."
Issues:
Comments
hear, hear!
That rubbed me so wrong as well. They are both GREAT mayors. Period.
There is a positive interpretation
I think it is an attempt to be accurate by acknowledging that there certainly have been gay public officials elected in the past who hid tha fact. In a way, using the word "openly" can cause that realization.
Not outing someone
I think it's a way for the press to let the reading public know that the person has previously made their sexual orientation public and that the press isn't outing them.
Understood
Just awaiting the day that being gay becomes so accepted that there is no longer a process known as "outing"
It's also about acknowledging the not-openly gay
It's not a qualifier to the person but an acknowledgement that when we say "Orange County has had 3 gay mayors" what we mean is 3 that we know of.