STFU, GLBT:Obama defends Kagan & advances the cause of the closet

There was a lot of relevant, good stuff written about Elena Kagan – I‘ll just refer you to the Big Pink for those.

I’ll just limit myself to the “STFU GLBT, you got all you were even going to get from us” angle.

In picking an openly gay candidate, Obama didn’t intend to make a statement of support of gay rights. We know this from the way they attacked a blogger and CBS for chronicling the fact that Kagan was openly gay

A White House spokesman, Ben LaBolt, said he complained to CBS because the column “made false charges.”

That was awkward enough that a highly publicized empty gesture – a memorandum about gay  couples hospital visitation was quickly devised.

The Obama media quickly ran with the meme accusing the “R”s of spreading the rumors

Elena Kagan ‘Gay’ Whisper Campaign Enrages Rights Groups

Leading gay rights group are accusing Republicans of trying to rile up their conservative base by launching a whisper campaign against potential Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan — suggesting the current Solicitor General is a closeted lesbian even though she’s not.

Considering that she actually is a lesbian, and not at all closeted, the question remains – why does the White House consider that being gay is a “charge”?

The question came back today

We are going to defend the nominee that the president has chosen,” Gibbs said when asked if he thinks the rumors will be brought up during the confirmation process.When asked what the White House was defending Kagan from, Gibbs said: “That’s just a broad answer.”

So, we don’t think she committed the crime of being gay, but if you’ll say it we’ll defend her, much as we don’t even know what that is….

Which brings me to the shocker of the day: Andrew Sullivan makes sense.

Yes, I know, the baby Bristol alien plot Sullivan, like the proverbial broken clock figured it out.

His title is trying to cut through the hypocrisy

So Is She Gay?

.and his conclusion (formulated as a question since he hearts Obama so much) is right

To put it another way: Is Obama actually going to use a Supreme Court nominee to advance the cause of the closet (as well as kill any court imposition of marriage equality)? And can we have a clear, factual statement as to the truth? In a free society in the 21st Century, it is not illegitimate to ask. And it is cowardly not to tell.

Well, Andrew, way to late to figure it out, but yes, Virginia, that’s precisely what Kagan is meant to do.

Just like Hispanics are supposed to swallow the immigration ID card because they have Sottomayor.

Just like women are supposed to enjoy Jane Crow because they have two women in SCOTUS.

And on this note this just in

Kagan in ’97 urged Clinton to ban late abortions

Kagan means STFU GLBT – or as you put it – advancing the cause of the closet.

Now live with it, as you did your best to make it happen.

Update

The story is not over – with the White House still “defending Kagan on unspecified charges”.

Here’s the White House bristling at a Wall Street cover yesterday

Softball question

.for having Kagan on the cover playing softball

.To the protests that this is an allusion to her sexuality, the WSJ editors responded

“If you turn the photo upside down, reverse the pixilation and simultaneously listen to Abbey Road backwards, while reading Roland Barthes, you will indeed find a very subtle hidden message,” said Journal spokeswoman Ashley Huston.

and gays and lesbians on the other side of the political spectru, had fun with this too

“I fully expect the White House to push back and claim Kagan never  played softball and that it’s a smear to insinuate she did,” emailed a founder of the conservative gay group GOProud, Chris Barron.

So Politico follows “the fight” with another salvo

Kagan’s friends: She’s not gay

with a Seinfeldesque “not that’s anything wrong with that”

But Kagan’s friends’ desire to “out” her as straight has been complicated by their hope to avoid offending gay friends by implying that there would be any problem if she were a lesbian.

A bit late after the White House fought so hard against the “charges”

Oh, and Sullivan already turned around, praising Obama for his shrewdness

The third is that she is a highly cautious political lesbian who has drawn a line around her real life in order to prevent her orientation being used against her – especially by the Christianist right.

So what if the third option is correct and Obama is actually being extremely shrewd?

And so his jujitsu becomes a triumph for gay rights, and his nominee, who I suspect is far more left-liberal than anyone now believes, helps shape the court for a generation.

So we’re back to multi-dimensional chess. OK, Sullivan, I withdraw my compliment from yesterday, as you withdrew your glimmer of lucidity.