The day Elena Kagan was nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court, I told a colleague of rumors around Boston that she is gay. There followed one of those fascinating conversations where you are on new ground without the benefit of party conversations or cable blather. You are out there on your own.
We assumed for the moment that Kagan was gay. If true, I thought we had the opportunity to move civil rights ahead 25 years with the first gay member of the Supreme Court.
But strangely, no one was talking about it. There were blog rumors. But the New York Times, always trying to be perfect, called her unmarried. No one else was writing about it even though the Washington buzz machine was, well, buzzing about her sexual orientation.
Couple of days later, the bomb explodes. The Wall Street Journal runs a page 1 photo of Kagan playing softball. Huffington Post and Politico run stories quoting Kagan friends saying she is NOT gay; that they used to set her up on dates.
Then we learn the White House has been telling reporters on background that Kagan is straight.
And lastly we learn that Kagan herself told the White House she is straight.
What a mess. Even after Vermont approves a same-sex marriage equality law (a proud moment for this firm) and we are just beginning to talk about the absurdity of the gays in the military policy, we still cant talk about this issue honestly.
I really hope Kagan and the White House are telling the truth about her sexual orientation. If they are lying and she is gay, it means they were afraid of telling the truth, that they were ashamed of her sexual orientation; that they placed a successful nomination over the truth. That sets back civil rights in this area for along time.
Worse, is the way the media let the story come to them. Instead of confronting the issue and leading the conversation, they followed internet rumors and White House leaks on a really important issue.
What will REALLY be fun to watch is Republicans struggling to attack Kagan if she is gay. Will they really say she cant be on the court because of who she likes to date? How will Democrats and the president handle that one?
