In a world where confirmation bias and fixity of opinion often leave those on opposite sides of any given issue largely talking past one another, hearing someone with whom one is accustomed to disagree espousing what is largely one’s own position can be quite surprising, leading to an OMG WTF moment or three.
So it was the other day when I happened to read a blog entry (http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/don-t-fret-don-t-whine_524816.html) by William Kristol of the Daily Standard, entitled “Don't Fret, Don't Whine,” in which --- in what seems to be a “Road to Damascus” conversion experience moment --- he essentially urged his fellow conservatives to stop hyperventilating about the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. In sum and substance, Kristol’s post repeated a question posed by another conservative blogger who asked "[a]t what point does concern [about the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell] turn into hysterics, and when does it become insulting to our honorable men and women in uniform?"
To say that I was somewhat surprised to see William Kristol, of all people, essentially conceding the battle over open service by out LGBT service members, would be an understatement. Certainly, Kristol’s call to his fellow conservatives to conduct themselves with “composure and dignity,” will probably fall on deaf ears among large numbers of his fellow travelers.
Certainly, Kristol’s view will not resonate well in some conservative quarters where the very idea of out GLBT people participating as first-class citizens in the life of the Commonwealth provokes high drama, conniptions, and hissy fits of a type not normally expected from ostensibly straight people.
Yet, the willingness of so prominent a conservative as William Kristol to essentially throw in the towel on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell suggests that, for many on the conservative side of the aisle, the dynamics of the Culture Wars may be changing. What cannot be denied is that the queer culture war issues which so transfixed the nation just a few short years ago may be losing their power to animate a conservative base.
For, in truth, every year that passes diminishes the public sense of Otherness --- of Queerness, if you will --- that has historically underlain public discomfort with, and official sanctions against, America’s LGBT citizens. As I noted in a prior post, an increasing number of Americans interact on a daily basis with people whom they know to be queer, but whose queerness has simply ceased to be strange, threatening, or philosophically disturbing.
Twenty years ago, when I first came out -- at the age of 26 -- to family and friends, the average age for coming out was in fact 26. The passage of a generation has lowered the average age for coming out to somewhere in the early to mid teens. The presence of more and younger out GLBT people, particularly in larger metropolitan areas, cannot but have had an effect on the way in which the larger culture addresses the reality of sexual orientation. Time has a curious way of changing the views and expectations of even a William Kristol.
Thus, while I wish Mr. Kristol had simply and forthrightly declared that DADT was a bad idea whose demise was overdue, I can at least acknowledge that he seems to be coming round to the view that the world won’t end, the West won’t decline, and America won’t collapse by allowing homosexuals to be cannon fodder along with her straight fellow citizens.
It is too early to tell how the aftermath of DADT repeal will play out, but it does appear that, if William Kristol’s Weekly Standard blog post is any indication, conservative thinking on this issue maybe not as predictable nor as monolithic as might otherwise have been expected.
Certainly, there will continue to be those who will loudly object to the very idea that LGBT people can, or should, enjoy any incidents of first-class citizenship, but with such well-known conservatives as William Kristol beginning to come around on the issue of open service by out servicemembers, or former George Dubya Bush Solicitor General Ted Olson arguing for marriage equality, one may view the prospects for 2011 with guarded optimism.
We shall see if the year to come represents a turning point for America’s GLBT citizens, or whether the Culture Wars flare up again, as those who would set the clock back seek to arrest the steady progress not only of the LGBT community, but of the larger national community of which we are an ineluctable and integral part.
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Paul S. Marchand is an attorney in Cathedral City, California. He recently completed two terms on the city council there. The views expressed herein are his own, and not those of any other person or organization.
