Mainstream Media (and some gay bloggers) Take the Low Road on Elena Kagan Lesbian Rumors

I was checking my news feeds tonight and found 4 different mainstream news outlets and a prominent gay blog all posting the same Associated Press story: "Should we ask if Supreme Court nominee is gay?"  A further search on Google showed at least 2 dozen more sites carrying the same story.

 

The mainstream media (MSM) gives almost no coverage to ENDA, DADT or DOMA, but a butch looking, single woman gets nominated to be a Supreme Court justice and this becomes their token LGBT story. They'll all qualify their stories by saying "if doesn't matter if the nominee is gay, but..." What a bunch of weasels.

 

It all started last week when the Wall Street Journal did a story about Elena Kagan, the president's nominee to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, along with a very large photograph of Ms. Kagan playing softball, as if to imply that she must be a lesbian. The folks at WSJ insist this was not their intent, but the damage is done. 

 

For the last week, reporters and pundits have been demanding -- yes that's right demanding -- that Kagan confess her homosexuality. Brian Mann of North Country Public Radio wrote on his blog last week, "I want to officially join the phalanx of pundits on the right, the left and the middle who are demanding that Elena Kagan explain her private life to me in detail."

Has Senator Joseph McCarthy suddenly returned from the grave? 

 

Where are our national advocates and activists? GLAAD was glad to cover the announcement of Kagan's nomination, but where is our media watch dog when she's getting raked over the coals by the very media they monitor because of her perceived sexual orientation, based on nothing more than a stereotype of how feminine or masculine a woman should or shouldn't be? 

 

Hey, GLAAD! Isn't that your fucking job? 

 

It's bad enough when the MSM takes the low road, but 365gay.com should know better. Even they took the lazy way out and printed the entire AP story verbatim with no original slant or commentary. Personally, I'm offended when major news outlets do stories like this that exploit the LGBT community for sensationalism but fail to do any serious reporting on our issues unless we chain ourselves to something. But for a respected LGBT blog, like 365gay.com, to mindlessly reprint this trash without any original input or commentary that in any way condemns the story, I am thoroughly disgusted. They have even gone so far as to post a poll asking if Kagan's sexuality is relevant. They may say they're covering the Kagan story from an LGBT perspective, but they're being just as exploitative as the low-lifes at Fox News. 

 

Let the haters take the low road. We expect more from our own.

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• 11 Photos of Elena Kagan Not Playing Softball That Still Send Secret 'Lesbian' Message (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Best Friend Testimony: Elena Kagan is not a lesbian (bilerico.com)
• Kagan campaigns for Supreme Court job (sfgate.com)
• Kagan stepping aside as US solicitor general (seattletimes.nwsource.com)