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06/29/2011
Video: Koch defends relational privacy; but why?
Former NYC mayor (and famous Cuomo family rival) Ed Koch has much to say about the questions surrounding his own sexuality, as well as the nature of this line of questioning in general. An interesting discussion:
(*Note: interview was filmed in April,
thus the mention of failing marriage vote)
MAYOR ED KOCH ON RENT CONTROL, HIS SEXUALITY, ANDREW CUOMO,
AND HOW HE HELPED SAVE NEW YORK [Reason TV]
For me, the question always comes back to heterosexual candidates. Journalists easily and benignly ask questions about candidates' spouses or significant others. Straight electoral hopefuls often use smiling portraits of their families to boost their credentials. Come election time, heterosexual aspirants willfully sign up for magazine profiles that spill much neutral ink on relational matters inextricably related to their own sexualities, and come election night victory parties, the most important people in the candidate's life can usually be found beaming behind the victor. In fact, questions would arise if the candidate was being coy about such things.
So is it really unfair, in any way, to hold LGBT politicos to the same standard? I say no. A witch hunt or a nasty gay-baiting strategy ("Vote Cuomo, not the homo", for instance) is a completely separate matter. But simply talking about normalcy is not a witch hunt, especially in this modern media climate that vets any and every candidate within an inch of his or her life. In fact, I would argue that hiding LGBT normalcy or over analyzing its implications presents the larger problem.
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