#26
Posted: 2/2/13 at 1:41pm
I feel strongly that--as Mayor of NYC at the beginning of the AIDS crisis--Ed Koch dropped the ball. His response was inadequate. He repeatedly refused to listen to or demonstrate any empathy with the truly horrific experiences people were having in HIS city, in the hospitals for which he was, ultimately, responsible. He failed to show leadership, vision or compassion.
But Ed Koch was not--according to anything I have ever read or heard--a Gay Man. He may have been sexually attracted to men. He may have had SEX with other men. But his homosexuality was not integrated into his life in any kind of healthy, functional way. He was not--like any number of Hollywood closet cases--out in the gay bars meeting boys, having gossipy lunches at a big table of laughing, campy queens, etc. etc. etc. (NO-this is not the ONLY way in which one can live as a "gay" man. It is merely an easy short-hand for what I am trying to describe.)
As I said on the Mante Te'o thread, Katie Couric missed the mark by a mile when she asked Te'o if he was "gay". He is obviously NOT gay. That does not mean that he is not sexually attracted to men, nor does it mean that he is not actively engaged in having sex with men.
All of which is to say that while I feel that Koch has a lot to answer for with regard to his Administration's response to the early days of the AIDS crisis, I feel that it is unfair and inappropriate to judge him as somehow MORE culpable because he was a "gay man".
And I seriously question anyone's ability to come to the tidy conclusion that his failures were "due to" his being closeted. Unless there is someone out there with first-hand knowledge of an explicit statement by Koch to support that connection, I would posit that it is far more likely that his motives were complex and likely unknowable even to himself, let alone to us.
But Ed Koch was not--according to anything I have ever read or heard--a Gay Man. He may have been sexually attracted to men. He may have had SEX with other men. But his homosexuality was not integrated into his life in any kind of healthy, functional way. He was not--like any number of Hollywood closet cases--out in the gay bars meeting boys, having gossipy lunches at a big table of laughing, campy queens, etc. etc. etc. (NO-this is not the ONLY way in which one can live as a "gay" man. It is merely an easy short-hand for what I am trying to describe.)
As I said on the Mante Te'o thread, Katie Couric missed the mark by a mile when she asked Te'o if he was "gay". He is obviously NOT gay. That does not mean that he is not sexually attracted to men, nor does it mean that he is not actively engaged in having sex with men.
All of which is to say that while I feel that Koch has a lot to answer for with regard to his Administration's response to the early days of the AIDS crisis, I feel that it is unfair and inappropriate to judge him as somehow MORE culpable because he was a "gay man".
And I seriously question anyone's ability to come to the tidy conclusion that his failures were "due to" his being closeted. Unless there is someone out there with first-hand knowledge of an explicit statement by Koch to support that connection, I would posit that it is far more likely that his motives were complex and likely unknowable even to himself, let alone to us.
You think, what do you want?
You think, make a decision...
Updated On: 2/2/13 at 01:41 PM
.jpg?format=auto&width=365)
