Editor's notebook
Hoyt, Robert G.
inition of what is at issue, but seems oblivious to the serious, row point. Yet military life is more than a job, it is a way of reasonable, and contrary views of his fellow citizens....
...Clinton, tential attorney generals, Mr...
...Since ters, its troops have slowly but steadily been built we're all sexed, we all have a stake in the matter-and a lim- up so that they now constitute one of the world's ited perspective...
...The further study urged by Senator Nunn and the joint chiefs Mayor Raymond Flynn raises some below on the abortion makes sense...
...His slale- whether the notion of same-sex marriage cheapens and undermenl was released on January 26, 1993...
...We think he is naive about it on the grounds that if it's good for abortion, it's good...
...Clinton insists that status and behavior are issue...
...Yet, throughout the twentieth century Japan has they're admirable people...
...SPEAKING OF ASSUMPTIONS I played a very active role in the Clinton campaign as national campaign co-chairman, because 1, like many Catholics, [cc] that President Clinton will lead and unite the country on the common ground of social and economic justice...
...Clinton cares to give it...
...Or knowledge...
...Is that bias...
...In the absence of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, it or both, or neither...
...Still, incremental changes underminers of family values, dangerous role models for chil- over the past four decades have now brought Japan to the brink dren...
...It is especially important that the president hear The struggle over admitting self-acknowledged hothe voices raised in concern by a significant part of the coali- mosexuals into the armed services has something tion that was a deciding influence in his election...
...ing woman, Catholic social teachings on the respect and The cultural values that have divided the Democratic party dignity of a job and on the rights of workers meant a lot since McGovern continue...
...No reason a presidential cabinet canready serve in the military, the effect of the ban is simply to not be a species of the balanced ticket, except that: first, you dismiss people who are found out...
...But when the rights cases that will follow and make their way to the courts the issue first surfaced in the early seventies, fetal tissue research (as one gay activist responded to this line of argument: we don't was about human experimentation, informed consent, and ex- come out of the closet in order to remain celibates...
...cuts or compliments and complements the male-female variety...
...whether, vantages (not to speak of contempt and obloquy) upon a whole morally and ethically, homosexual love-making-men lying with class of people who are asking nothing more than equal treatmen, women with women-is perverse, repulsive, evil, or ment for themselves as persons...
...Clinton argues that since, in fact, gays al- based on that fine art...
...Raymond L. Fh•nn is the r avor o/' Boston...
...whether it's sound public policy to enact statutory proin the industrial world of support for women during and tections of gay and lesbian rights in housing, employment, after pregnancy...
...FLYNN homosexuality...
...By his actions last week, he has moved to make ity is chosen or discovered...
...There are arguments and anecdotal evidence for such views...
...My own reasons for coming down on the gay thusiastically embraced the concept of pacifism, by which they side are several...
...I was a domestic and foreign affairs...
...But that's just my opin- country that can freely use all of the traditional means-diploion, which has never been taken as definitive...
...overseeing a gradual transition to a significantly armed nation In any case, this issue will be settled (if it's ever settled) not with looser interpretations of the 1947 constitution...
...Unscientific, yes, but I note that whereas in a a fervent nationalism fed by state Shinto and reverence for the mid-January New York Times/CBS poll only 42 percent of all emperor...
...And yes, we think on the failure of two poMr...
...whether gays are predatory recruiters for their "lifetions rare'?The United States has perhaps the worst record style...
...two different things and believes that a rigorous code of sexuOn fetal tissue research, Mr...
...First, because of my life experience my knees understand a world in which military power plays no role in tend to jerk toward the liberal side of most issues...
...Clinton hopes to rebuild the in my home...
...ROBERT G. HOYT merely a sexual variant, in itself neither better nor worse than heterosexuality...
...This social philosophy inspired many sons nation's morale and restore a sense of trust in the government's and daughters of Catholic working- people to work for so- ability to solve at least some problems in a fair and efficient way, cial justice, care for the sick, the hungry and the homeless, he cannot become an advocate for cultural values about which and help build strong families and communities...
...Third, like most New Yorkers I have gay seemingly been a matter of national consensus and every postand lesbian friends and neighbors, and far from being preda- war prime minister has publicly distanced himself from expanding tory monsters, aberrant, sex-mad, weak-willed, or poor citizens, military power...
...international dialogue...
...sonal ignorance, and/or homophobic fear...
...and, finally, whether the belief that homosex- REPORT ON JAPAN uality is of its very nature a social disvalue, a psychological aberration, and a moral evil is founded on sound, time-tested personal and social values or is rooted in inherited bias, per- TO ARM OR NOT TO ARM...
...The experts, including ethicists, moral theologians, and biblical exegetes as well as Despite Japan's reputed aversion to military matpsychiatrists, anthropologists, and sociologists, differ...
...Yet military life is more than a job, it is a way of reasonable, and contrary views of his fellow citizens...
...Since then, "one country pacifism," as the Japanese adults surveyed favored permitting homosexuals to serve in the describe their foreign policy, has led some Japanese to conmilitary, 69 percent of respondents with a gay relative or friend clude that their stance keeps them on the fringes of mainstream took that position...
...I'm sure I mentioned them in confes- mestic economic reconstruction and development...
...Anything negative anyone says about felt a strong sense of isolation, heightened by a feeling of uniquehomosexuals in general I apply to these people in particular, ness...
...RAYMOND I...
...The point is that matic, economic, and military-to pursue its interests...
...Carville was right again: "Maybe make them rare God is punishing us for not picking someone with a normal a name, like Mary, Susan, or Elizabeth...
...whether, psychologically, homosexuality is radically unfair to continue heaping disabilities and disadis an aberration, a basic flaw, or simply a difference...
...It strikes me as position on abortion was to make abortions safe, legal, a battle over assumptions: whether homosexualand rare...
...whether the effect of the gay sensibility on politics, family 4: 26 February 1993 Commonweal life, theater, films, the arts in general is malevolent or positive, ecution...
...RETHINKING THE CONSTITUTION I speak of "assumptions" in that 205-word sentence because, in my judgment, there is no evidence on either side of any of these issues so compelling that it will simply overwhelm the opposition, shaming them into silence...
...Barring gays and dismiss- don't announce that's what you're doing...
...For the past twelve years, we have seen complete ahandonment by Washington of working families, the needy, AN EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK and urban communities...
...The reality of postrectness, used on behalf of homosexuals, can influence the war Japan has been that, while leaving its judgments even of professionals...
...What will President Clinton do to en- inheritance law, admission to the military, etc., and thereby to hance support for prenatal and postnatal care for women foster greater tolerance and, eventually, social acceptance of and children...
...The tactics of victimization and political cor- ten strongest armed forces...
...That is, a to the contrary is a great deal stronger...
...Commonweal 26 February 1993: 5...
...sion but they were neither repulsive at the time nor devastat- Keeping the brakes on expansion of military capabilities has ing in the aftermath...
...1948-52), the opportunity to limit political commitments abroad Second, I had a few fumbling homosexual experiences in my so that it could devote itself exclusively to the pursuit of doboys' boarding school...
...Boston's life...
...If Mr...
...the country is likely to remain in deep and durable conflict...
...Finally, however, this is an issue of justice...
...the Democrats once successfully ran several cities On gay rights Mr...
...in this dispute, as in the case of any defendant charged with In fact, foreign pressure, or gaiatsu, has provided the rationany kind of antisocial behavior, the burden lies with the pros- ale for an expanding military capability since the Korean War...
...to do with the nature of the military but a lot more During the campaign, President Clinton stated that his with the nature of homosexuality...
...In of particular job candidates don't go public, even anonymously that respect the ban is wrong...
...Janet seems like a rearowing up the son of a dockworker and clean- sonable compromise...
...The depth of conviction American-imposed "peace" constitution intact and publicly adamong anti-gay advocates, and their sheer numbers, have con- hering to the idea of an unarmed country, the government of siderable impact that is similarly unrelated to the force of their the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) has, in fact, been arguments...
...by experts but by amateurs: the rest of us...
...Up to the end of World War II this was characterized by and I get mad...
...third and obviously, it isn't balanced if they're all lawyers no matter their gender or shade...
...of abandoning "one country pacifism" for what many Japanese I think that the arguments can be refuted and that the evidence leaders see as the status of a "normal" nation-state...
...It follows that we Japanese militarism and the quest for imperial expansion that should all try (repeat: try) to be upfront about the sources for led to World War II failed so completely that the Japanese enour conclusions...
...such research now includes many other On cabinet quotas, it is true that a balanced ticket has a long complex issues (Commonweal, editorial, June 19, 1992) that bear and worthy political tradition expressive of solid party discisharper scrutiny than Mr...
...whether it can and should be them safe and legal, but what will he do to make abor- "cured...
...As president of the United States Conference of Mayors this past year, I have seen a total lack of any concern for America's cities and their people GAYS, LESBIANS & SOCIETY: by the White House...
...Clinton gives no evidence of com- al conduct for both heterosexuals and homosexuals in the milprehending its larger consequences...
...Abortion proponents defend itary will maintain that distinction...
...second, proponents ing them is a form of job discrimination, which is wrong...
...and fourth, insisting on a particular kind of person for a job is not balance, but a form of obsessive behavior...
...ploitation of poor women...
...whether gays and lesbians can be good parents...
...Clinton is right on this nar- (a good rule of thumb used to be: you talk, you're out...
...This "passive pacifism," along Depression child, my mother was strongly devoted to FDR and with Japan's postwar constitution, offered a defeated Japan under the New Deal, and I was orphaned at twelve, therefore an un- the leadership of Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida (1946-47, derdog in life's struggle and a sympathizer with underdogs...
...Homosexuals Japan's democratic structure, with its civilian control over stand at the bar accused as a group of being a corrupting in- the military, minimizes the chances of an extreme shift toward fluence in society, a threat to the effectiveness of the military, a greater military role in government...
...pline...
Vol. 120 • February 1993 • No. 4
