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Frank Rich on Washington Homophobia

Counterlight told us about the Smithsonian censoring the art of David Wojnarowicz when culture warrior Bill Donohue went after it, a month after the exhibition of which it was a part, opened. Frank Rich picks up the story todayas an example of Washington homophobia and cowardice.

The incident is chilling because it suggests that even in a time of huge progress in gay civil rights, homophobia remains among the last permissible bigotries in America....

..Donohue was just using his “religious” objections as a perfunctory cover for the homophobia actually driving his complaint. The truth popped out of the closet as Donohue expanded his indictment to “pornographic images of gay men.” His Republican Congressional allies got into the act. Eric Cantor called for the entire exhibit to be shut down and threatened to maim the Smithsonian’s taxpayer funding come January. (The exhibit was entirely funded by private donors, but such facts don’t matter in culture wars.) ...

It took only hours after Donohue’s initial battle cry for the video to be yanked. “The decision wasn’t caving in,” the museum’s director, Martin E. Sullivan, told reporters. Of course it was. The Smithsonian, in its own official statement, rationalized its censorship by saying that Wojnarowicz’s video “generated a strong response from the public.” That’s nonsense. There wasn’t a strong response from the public — there was no response....

The Post’s Gopnik has been heroically relentless in calling out the Smithsonian and the National Portrait Gallery for their capitulation. But few in Washington’s power circles have joined him, including the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents — a gilded assembly of bipartisan cowardice that ranges from Senator Thad Cochran, Republican of Mississippi, to Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont. ...

It still seems an unwritten rule in establishment Washington that homophobia is at most a misdemeanor. By this code, the Smithsonian’s surrender is no big deal; let the art world do its little protests. This attitude explains why the ever more absurd excuses concocted by John McCain for almost single-handedly thwarting the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” are rarely called out for what they are — “bigotry disguised as prudence,” in the apt phrase of Slate’s military affairs columnist, Fred Kaplan. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council has been granted serious and sometimes unchallenged credence as a moral arbiter not just by Rupert Murdoch’s outlets but by CNN, MSNBC and The Post’s “On Faith” Web site even as he cites junk science to declare that “homosexuality poses a risk to children” and that being gay leads to being a child molester.

Kudos to Frank Rich for being a vocal straight ally and calling out the craven politicians on this. John Aravosis at AmericaBlog refers to the Democrats as suffering political homophobia. As we see the battle over DADT, and DOMA, and marriage equality, the truth of the statement that being anti-gay is the last acceptable bias is apparent.

Remember, a year after Loving v. Virginia was decided over 70% of Americans disapproved of marriage equality--even though inter-racial marriage was legal. Today, polls suggest that fewer than 50% of Americans disapprove of gays and lesbians marrying--and it's still illegal in most states.

Those opposed increasingly represent a minority position based on fear and ignorance. Why do we give them the attention, when if they said the same lies about any other minority, they would be laughed off the stage?

Where's Counterlight when you need him?

We're visiting my parents in the Bay Area and went to the "post-impressionist" exhibition at the De Young Museum. This is the 2nd half of a paired exhibition of amazing pieces from the Musée d'Orsay in paris which is undergoing renovation. This half featured Cezanne, Van Gogh, Seurat, and Gauguin, as well as Maurice Denis, the Nabis (who knew?) and others. A few Renoir and Monet to set the stage. I wish we'd been able to get up here to see the first half too (Mom and Dad of course are members and saw both halves.) And I REALLY wish I could walk through this exhibition with our friend Counterlight's eyes and knowledge!

Visual pleasures

This weekend BP and I attended an art exhibition that combined two fascinating artists: Chihuly at the Salk, which takes the installation art glass of Dale Chihuly and places it among the iconic buildings designed by Louis Kahn, that house the Salk Institute (a private research facility in San Diego). Kahn's buildings, made of concrete and teak and travertine, are perched over the Pacific and their surfaces provide a light show that varies with the time of day.

I was not familiar with Chihuly's work previously, except in a vague way. The pieces were varied. There were big clamshells in vibrant colors; a rowboat filled with massive, brilliant balls; and a Sun with individual tendrils wired in place. The combination of the stark flat surfaces of the buildings with the rich colors and undulating curves of Chihuly's pieces was most effective. And as you can see, the lighting at night was very striking -- look at the shadows of the sun piece on the flat surfaces to the sides. That strip of yellow down the middle is a narrow water feature that runs through the Salk's courtyard, and reflected the Light of the Sun. ;-) Click on any image for a bigger view.

Visual delights of a different sort presented themselves a day later, when we walked in our local canyon to take in the vivid wild flowers, with purples and yellows scumbled across the uncharacteristically green hillside. Lizards scrambled under our feet and the flowers were alive with bees. Two redtail hawks overhead grasped their talons and the grosbeak sung his heart out to his mate.



The Chihuly exhibition runs for just a week. Spring will run a bit longer. ;-)

The Road to Golgotha

The Road to Golgotha
Simon Desmond, 1999