Leading article: Pride here, oppression there
Sunday, 8 April 2007
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A flurry in the pink politics of America prompts an interesting reflection. As we report today, the US gay magazine Out has caused a stir by naming as gay an actress and a CNN newsreader, neither of whom has voluntarily identified themselves as homosexual. The editor of the magazine cheerfully acknowledges that he was inspired by The Independent on Sunday's annual Pink List to compile his own list of gay people who make a significant contribution to national life.
But it is the differences that are intriguing. Our Pink List is a celebration - albeit a kitsch one - of a struggle that is being won. It names only those who are already "out". Yet it is not so long ago that Peter Tatchell's group OutRage! threatened to name "hypocritical" homosexuals in public life on the grounds that they were complicit by their silence in the oppression of lesbians and gay men. It was never a good argument, although it had some force when applied to gay Conservative MPs who opposed an equal age of consent or who supported Section 28, the symbol of licensed discrimination in local government.
It is an argument that has lost its force almost completely in Britain. Not only have the past 10 years seen huge progress to the goal of equality, but the Conservative Party has accepted that progress. Matters remain very different in the US, with Republicans up to and including George Bush prepared to use discrimination against lesbians and gay men for political purposes. On this issue at least, the perception of British culture as more grown-up than that of America is now justified.
