By Charlie Smith
Charleston, SC
The blogosphere is ablaze this week with pseudo-amazement that Andre Bauer, Glenn McConnell and Lindsey Graham might be gay. While we’re expressing our indignation/stirring the media pot on this subject, maybe we should just call up Nancy Grace and declare open season on all suspected closet cases. Then maybe we can get this outing thing over with once and for all…starting at the top. Jesus, for example, a confirmed bachelor at 33, was known to host at least one dinner party with twelve unattached men. Wouldn’t a straight man have done lunch at the club? But then Jesus never said a negative word about gay people, so maybe we should reconsider his case.
The only reason that anybody cares about the sexuality of Andre, Glenn and Lindsey is that everybody knows what jackasses they have been on every issue that has negatively affected the lives of LGBT South Carolinians in recent years. In other words, if these elected officials truly are gay, everybody knows that they will then richly deserve whatever comeuppance they get. These rumors are not new. Anybody who can perform a Google search will discover that Ketner’s comments are less than Earth-shattering. (See “Seven Minutes In Gay Hell” published in September 2007 by The Charleston City Paper)
Hopefully one day soon South Carolinians will realize the true harm they inflict on themselves when they elect and re-elect gay-bashing closet cases to public office. An elected official who has to waste time fortifying his closet to stay in power is by definition giving less than his or her full attention to the real problems of our state…not to mention being a sorry example of leadership. Linda Ketner’s point was that honesty and integrity are essential to both the public and private life of those who seek to serve our citizens.
Ketner has been open and honest about every aspect of her life and because of that she has been able to profoundly improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians…including yours and mine. If Andre, Glenn and Lindsey have something to hide, then they and others like them have made their own political beds by attacking gay people at every opportunity. If they are hiding something, they deserve whatever political retribution they get.