---

Comments, possibly informed.

Tim Wilson
Daytona Beach, Florida, USA
timatollah@mackandtim.net
Personal Homepage
Professional Homepage

 
It Only Happened Almost a Year and a Half Ago

For some reason, Ted Barlow decided to post his opinions (here, on his FAQ) about the so-called Andrew Sullivan Barebacking Scandal. I'm not sure why he decided to do so now, since we're talking about events that happened in late May or early June of 2001.

There's little in what Ted has written for me to disagree with. But the fact that he had written it led me to post some of my ideas on the whole episode in his comments (my comments here). When the Sullivan story originally unfolded, I participated to a small degree in a discussion about it on Usenet's soc.motss. Shortly thereafter, I went on a two-week road trip, and I had time to cogitate about what was going on. What I posted in Ted's FAQ comments was along the lines of what I'd thought back then, but had never taken the opportunity to express.

I will add a little. Yes, it seems fair to charge Sullivan with hypocrisy for being occasionally somewhat moralistic in his attitude towards some in the larger gay community. Glass houses, stones, etc. still, as always, applies. I just don't find the mild degree of Sullivan's hypocrisy, which is understandably evident to some degree in most public individuals who have some semblence of a private life, as noxious as the get-with-the-program toe-the-party-line attitudes of self-appointed self-righteous enforcers in the gay community and the larger number of by-and-large non-thinking sheep who repeat what the enforcers say. Bleat. Bleat. Bleat.
posted by Tim Wilson at 8:15 AM