LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN
LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN Outing —the forced exposure of secret homosexuals—has Jewish parallels. I would "out" the celebrities and movers and shakers who won't publicize their views about Israel's...
...What else will expose the secret progressives who believe one thing about Israeli policies and say another...
...Why aren't we hearing from the 78 percent who said that Israel should not expand the settlements5 Or the 67 percent who think "Arab sovereignty in the territories" with border adjustments is necessary to any peace arrangement...
...Where are the 76 percent who agreed that "Israel should offer the Arabs territorial compromise in the West Bank and Gaza...
...Today, American Jewish leaders must use their royal position to talk truth to power—and to their own people Thankfully, a few have done just that...
...What we should be naming are the factors that keep people closeted, and then go about removing the barriers...
...Time is precious, and powerful people must come out—or be outed In the last 18 months, Outweek, a national lesbian and gay news magazine, has unmasked three prominent businessmen, a superstar photographer, a famous writer and a syndicated columnist "We apply certain rules before we out someone," says editor in chief Gabriel Rotello...
...And, after the Temple Mount tragedy, the well-respected T^d Mann, Earl Rabb, Henry Rosovsky, Jacqueline Levine, Esther Leah Ritz and other members of Nishma, a coalition of more than 100 Jewish leaders concerned about Israeli security in the context of the peace process, signed a joint letter to Shamir and President Bush expressing the view that cooperation with the UN investigatory mission "would not compromise Israel's position in Jerusalem and would help put the issue to rest...
...If one believes that the positions taken by the incumbent Israeli leaders imperil the state, the only patriotic option is to protest and challenge them...
...If you choose to become a public figure, it's an occupational hazard to have your private life written about extensively," says Rotello "All we're doing is applying that same standard to homosexuals...
...Before drawing the Jewish parallel, let me explain...
...Coming out is a private matter between a person and their conscience," he says...
...But outing is a tool you must use carefully...
...I would "out" the celebrities and movers and shakers who won't publicize their views about Israel's policies...
...Regarding Israeli politics in particular, silence is neither golden nor neutral...
...Or as Jerusalem Post columnist Allen Shapiro puts it...
...Indeed, after Leonard Bernstein's homosexuality was discussed in Joan Peyser's 1986 biography, he lost none of his luster Gerry Studs and Barney Frank were reelected to Congress after their public coming out...
...Certain gay activists have been using press interviews, leaflets, demonstrations and gay newspapers to "out"—to publicize the names of—alleged homosexuals The activists argue that all lesbians and gay men should come out of the closet, especially prominent politicians and business and entertainment personalities, whose visibility and clout would make them effective role models and public symbols for the cause of gay rights Those who refuse to self-identify are said to hurt other gays by perpetuating a climate of denial, fear and shamefulness that in turn engenders more discrimination, harassment, blackmail, gay-bashing and violence, not to mention a distorted image of the American sexual spectrum...
...People haven't stopped watching the movies of Rock Hudson or John Travolta since their homosexuality was revealed...
...Only a confirmed antisemite could believe that Israel has the leadership it deserves " If I were outing the secret critics of Israeli policy, I would point to the Jewish members of Congress who privately agree with Americans for Peace Now but publicly stand with AIPAC And I would out all the Hollywood celebrities, Washington insiders and New York movers and shakers who tell their close friends that Israel should negotiate with the PLO and accept two states for two peoples—but who won't publicize their views because they're afraid to contradict the party line...
...They don't like naming names...
...Real leaders take the lead even if it means confessing disagreement out loud Just as secret homosexuals hurt their cause, closeted Jewish moderates are hurting us—by depleung the Zionist chorus, by cheating us of our full voice To paraphrase an old axiom, all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to say nothing...
...Al Vorspan expressed his reservations about Israel's response to the intifada The signatories to last year's "Letter of 41" courageously protested Shamir's manipulation of American Jewish opinion...
...3» Letty Cottin Pogrebin, a founding editor of Ms...
...Three, they have to be people whose careers would not be harmed by the revelation—and not one major entertainment or media star has been damaged by being outed...
...Charles Ortleb, publisher of the New York Native, a weekly gay newspaper, insists outing smacks of McCarthyism, even fascism...
...afraid it would tarrush their establishment credentials and get them excluded from meetings with Israeli big shots, afraid to lose what Arthur Hertzberg has called their "dinnerabilty"—the social invitations that count...
...Mane Wilson, a member of the board of Lambda, the national gay and lesbian legal defense fund, says, "If I found out Jesse Helms was gay, I sure wouldn't keep it a secret...
...Patricia Maher, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who is herself a lesbian, says, "The instinct to use outing as a major political strategy is short sighted...
...magazine, is the author of Among Fnends (McOraio-Hill, 1986) She is currently at work on a memoir about her struggle to reconcile feminism and fudaism...
...Opponents of outing agree with the ends but not with the means...
...But when you're living in a Nazi-esque situation you don't point out the Jews...
...He also recalled Mordecai's warning to Esther not to "keep silent in this crisis., who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for just such a crisis" (Esther 4:14...
...As a civil libertarian, I support the right of privacy (which, after all, underpins the pro-choice position) But as a feminist organizer and Jewish community activist, I hunger for new strategies, role models and spokespersons for my causes Ultimately, I think I'd have to side with the privacy protectors because I understand how slippery is the slope that allows exceptions for political expediency However, I confess to being sorely tempted to borrow the tactic of outing and to use it in the Jewish community to elicit more honesty in the Middle East debate...
...We want to normalize homosexuality We want people to realize that gay people are everywhere...
...I see the merits in both points of view...
...It's a scalpel, not a shovel...
...These outing fanatics don't care who they hurt as long as it advances us toward Utopia...
...Two, they have to be openly gay in their private life...
...Real leaders refuse to be coerced into equating the present Israeli government with the State of Israel...
...How else can we unmask the liberal Jews who maintain what Ted Mann, past president of the American Jewish Congress, calls "a code of silence" and thereby create a false impression of unanimity that can be exploited by Israel's right-wing government...
...We strongly recommend that people do it, but when another person does it for you, it's an imposition on your right to self-determination And it's mean spirited...
...Minority groups can learn from each other's strategies and struggles...
...Moreover, given AIDS politics and the urgency of appropriating more funds for research and treatment, gay activism is a hfe-and-death imperative, they say...
...One, the person must be a public figure...
...They raise civil libertarian concerns and worry about the invasion of privacy...
...In a sermon delivered to Bet Mishpachah, the lesbian and gay synagogue of Washington, D C, Barrett L Brick found Jewish justification for ouung in the words of Isaiah: "Do not hide yourself from your kin...
...That's why I've been following the controversy surrounding the practice of "outing"—the forced exposure of secret homosexuals...
...it is perceived as agreement with the status quo...
...Leaders Where are you now that we need you...
...And who is speaking for the 59 percent who agreed that "Israel should offer the Palestinians the prospect of a demilitarized state in 15 years...
...Most of all, I'd like to lure out of the closet some of those 800 anonymous "establishment community leaders"—rabbis, professional and lay leaders of community relations, philanthropic and religious agencies—who answered Steven M. Cohen's 1989 survey sponsored by the Israel-Diaspora Institute of Tel Aviv University...
...I can't see liberation arising out of public shaming...
...Celebrities have a power they're not using...
Vol. 16 • February 1991 • No. 1
