May 11, 2007   | COMMENTS     

To the Editors:

Re: “Shays emerges as reliable backer of gay rights” (news, May 4)

Christopher Shays is no recent advocate of equality for lesbians and gays — in sharp contrast to the other Christopher on the Connecticut congressional delegation. 

Chris, as so many of his constituents know him, has been a staunch advocate for gay rights starting from back in 1987, when he won a special election to succeed Stewart McKinney, who had died of AIDS. 

No other member of the Connecticut delegation, including liberal Democrats like Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, has expressed regret for voting for the Defense of Marriage Act. 

Chris has been there for his gay constituents his entire congressional career — and even as a state senator from Stamford.

MARIANNE G.C. SEGGERMAN
Westport, Conn.

Damn right we support
a woman’s right to choose

To the Editors:

Re: “It’s not a gay issue” (op-ed by James Kirchick, May 4)

James Kirchick accuses the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force of speaking out on an issue that is “at best tangential to the community” when we criticized the Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding legislative bans on late-term abortions.

Kirchick says “the only way in which abortion could ever be tied to gay political concerns is in the rare case when a surrogate or lesbian mother decides, for whatever reason, to abort the fetus that she agreed to carry prior to insemination.”

It is difficult to discern in what universe he’s living: the one full of men,
gay and not, where the unwanted sexual violence of rape and incest could never result in unwanted pregnancy, or the one where the unwanted sexual violence of rape and incest magically never results in unwanted impregnation of women.

Either universe is far away from the place where women — lesbian, bisexual and straight — live today. Moreover, nature dictates that even wanted pregnancies can produce deformed and diseased fetuses. Any woman needs to be able to terminate a pregnancy when her life will be degraded on account of it, no matter her sexual orientation, no matter how she became pregnant.

This is about much more than access to abortion, as important as that is. It is about who controls our bodies and our sexualities. Reproductive freedom and gay rights are inextricably intertwined. Simply put, we would not have Lawrence but for Roe.

Longer than any other national LGBT organization — more than 34 years to be exact — we’ve been advocating equality within a larger social justice framework. Do we support a woman’s right to choose? Damn right. Always have. Always will. No apologies. No regrets.

MATT FOREMAN
Executive director
National Gay & Lesbian Task Force

Don’t applaud Aravosis for
his anti-gay smear campaign

To the Editors:

Re: “Don’t fear the blogs” (op-ed by Lane Hudson, May 4)

In a column last week, Lane Hudson discussed the role of blogs in a rapidly changing media universe. I agree with his overall sentiment, but I must make two points with regard to what he wrote about me:

“John Aravosis’ AmericaBlog has become extremely popular. Through diligent work and research, he exposed the conservative blogger Jeff Gannon, who was ‘mysteriously’ issued White House press credentials, as a gay male escort. Gannon’s tenure of tossing softball questions at White House Press briefings quickly ended.”

First of all, I was a reporter for two years, writing more than 500 original
articles for a conservative news service; I was not a blogger. I was not “mysteriously” issued White House press credentials.

I went through the same process as everyone else who was granted the level of access that I had. As for “tossing softball questions,” this statement demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of my full body of work as a White House correspondent. This characterization is the regurgitation of a liberal talking point that has no basis in fact and for which Hudson has no personal knowledge to assert.

Secondly, Aravosis’ “work and research” as Hudson called it, was part of a smear campaign against someone who was suspected of being gay.  That is something the gay community should be outraged about instead of celebrating as a positive accomplishment. Had I been a liberal, gays would have been e-mail flaming the perpetrators demanding apologies, censures and firings.

My tenure at the White House ended (my decision) when threats of physical violence were made against members of ...