Thursday, April 22, 2010
Outed as straight
The front page of today's Philadelphia Inquirer has a story with a unique twist on politics and sexuality.
It's happened so often that it's now a cultural cliche: the gay politician pretending to be straight. In most parts of the nation, homosexuality or bisexuality is a clear electoral liability.Well, I don't know who to believe, and maybe it does not matter all that much, since I don't live in that district.
Not in Center City's 182d state House district. There, it's a badge of honor.
Veteran Rep. Babette Josephs (D., Phila.) last Thursday accused her primary opponent, Gregg Kravitz, of pretending to be bisexual in order to pander to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender voters, a powerful bloc in the district.
"I outed him as a straight person," Josephs said during a fund-raiser at the Black Sheep Pub & Restaurant, as some in the audience gasped or laughed, "and now he goes around telling people, quote, 'I swing both ways.' That's quite a respectful way to talk about sexuality. This guy's a gem."
Kravitz, 29, said that he is sexually attracted to both men and women and called Josephs' comments offensive.
There may be only one way to resolve the truth here, in the sense that the truth is in the act itself. George Costanza provides some guidance (from the Seinfeld episode in which an NYU reporter mistakenly believes Jerry and George are gay):
Time to, er, man up, Kravitz, or woman up -- whatever.
2 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Apr 23, 03:37:00 AM:
This clip was truly a classic. One of the best Seinfeld's ever.
By 
Trochilus, at
Fri Apr 23, 10:00:00 AM:
Okay, okay . . . but politics is politics.
How about something really important?
Like softball?
