Doe v. Reed: Creating a Closet

Today is a busy news day (as far as I am concerned), so I will be posting a few separate blogs (much shorter than the last one).

First is Doe v. Reed, a Supreme Court case that is, in a few ways, rather strange. The Huffington Post did a brief story (here) regarding the case and the retirement of John Paul Stevens. If anything, I think this is a good note for John Paul Stevens to leave on, which relates to one of the reasons this case is so strange. Justice Stevens and Justice Antonin Scalia agree (and I also agree with Scalia).

Usually a debate about sexuality and immorality are the predominate components of a court case that stems from same-sex marriage. Homosexuals are usually the victim. The power dynamic has shifted here. But the shift is strange. Even Justice Scalia is critcizing the complaints by anti-gay petitioners: "The First Amendment does not protect you from criticism or even nasty phone calls when you exercise your political rights to legislate, or to take part in the legislative process." Anti-gay protestors are utilizing the amendment that clearly states that there is a right to free speech to essentially conceal their speech. They are attempting to pervert the right to petition the government into the right to petition in secret. But why?

A simple answer is projection. Anti-gay protestors are projecting their anger and hatred onto the homosexual community, assuming that this anger will be reflected back at them if their names are revealed. This is, unfortunately, possible, but it is always a possible byproduct of free speech. There are social repercussions, and any illegal repercussion should be stymied by the law itself. In this case, simple fear multiplies, and, in turn, will probably facilitate the emergence of more fear. It is interesting that this fear, created by the anti-gay protestors themselves, is forcing them into a figurative "closet," a space of repression that parallels the sociopolitically marginal space that homosexuals have been relegated to for years.

They are concealing their identities, silencing themselves in order to navigate around a frightening minority. No one deserves to be silenced or repressed, but this type of silencing, done to oneself due to fear and hatred, is especially grotesque. There is no reason for this power dynamic to exist. For one group to be literally, or to feel like they are, oppressed by another group. The anti-gay protestors are constructing a struggle, acting like there has to be a winner, a usurper, an oppressor. This is a false dichotomy. Political debate should be fluid and identity should not be limiting.

I hope (with a hope that I know will probably be unfulfilled) that the protestors learn something from this. That they learn what it feels like to be relegated to a silent space, to be afraid of what an Other may say or do. And that this realization transforms into acceptance, evolves into tolerance, and that the United States may become a more unified and equalized nation.