>I'm unsure what to make of what you mean by "being against the queers." If
>you're asking if Rorty is homophobic, then I think the answer is no. If
>you're asking would he object to certain forms of essentialist queer
>identity-theory, then the answer is probably yes. But let's not confuse
>identity politics with the politics of identity-theory.
No, I don't think he's homophobic, but, and I admit I've read very little of his stuff, my sense is that he wishes the queers would just behave. And that people like him - and I mean the folks Katha Politt listed in her column, like Gitlin, Moore, Tomasky (as well as Rorty, and all the other folks scribbling in the Nation's first principles series) - think, as she put it, "that 'the left' has gone up the garden path of 'identity politics,' when it should be focusing on unifying large majorities around the traditional Democratic Party agenda of strong unions, public spending and respect for patriotism, Christianity, and the family." I think that's a pretty fair picture, and I take that to mean that while none of these folks are personally homophobic (or misogynist or racist), they nonetheless think those sorts of issues shouldn't be talked about very loudly because they alienate the masses. As if the masses weren't of all sexes, persuasions, and colors.
Doug