On Radishes and Fences

An open response to Andrew Sullivan's lament ten years on from Obergefell

Dear Andrew,

Your recent lament in The New York Times, a decade on from the Obergefell ruling in the United States that legalised same sex marriage, is timely. Timely but naive.

As a gay man yourself, Andrew, you celebrated the court’s decision to grant equal relationship status to gay couples. In your article you list the achievements that have resulted from that momentous decision.

But as I read your piece, I realise that it is a full-blown lament. It is titled “How The Gay Rights Movement Radicalized and Lost Its Way”.

And you observe, with an increasing concern that I share:

But a funny thing happened in the wake of these triumphs. Far from celebrating victory, defending the gains and staying vigilant but winding down as a movement that had achieved its core objectives — including the end of H.I.V. in the United States as an unstoppable plague — gay and lesbian rights groups did the opposite. Swayed by the broader liberal shift to the social justice left, they radicalized.

You then go on to list the ways in which the movement shifted in its focus (though I would argue that there was no shift), swept up the transgender ideology into its orbit, before seeking to impose change both from the top down (legislation) and the bottom up (education). Yet as you list these things, I wonder how you did not see it coming.

You ponder, with increasing concern, how the pride flag is forced to adapt and adopt, adding colours and shapes seemingly at random. You worry how biological science is being forced to bend the knee to gender. You ask, Is there no end to this radicalization? In a poignant moment, which shows how time has indeed passed you by, you wistfully muse:

As I watched all this radical change, I wondered if I was just another old fart, shaking my fist at the sky, like every older generation known to man. Why not just accept that the next gay and lesbian generation has new ideas and has moved on and old-timers like me should just move aside?

The key term here, of course Andrew, is the word “radical”, which in its etymological framing simply means “root”. The source of something. It’s why we call radishes “radishes”. They are radical - of the root.