Outing Hypocrisy (was Re: Sullivan on the Barebacking Story)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>From: Doug Henwood (dhenwood at panix.com)
>Date: Thu May 31 2001 - 12:04:25 EDT
>
>Justin Schwartz wrote:
>
>>I don't care about hypocrisy: it is a venial sin at worst; and I
>>don't think he's guilty of it here anyway. Please, let's do get back
>>to attacking his political views, and not his private life!
>
>Maybe it's my residual Catholicism showing through, but I think
>hypocrisy matters if people prominently go about telling other people
>how to live their lives, and then act in a completely different way
>in private (writing a piece denouncing abortion, say, almost at the
>very moment one is paying for one's girlfriend's abortion).
>
>Doug

What's the main outcome of exposing hypocrisy, though?  To bring 
public speech in conformity with private acts by (A) changing the 
former (in this case dropping the public moralizing of other people's 
sexual affairs) or (B) changing the latter (in this case renouncing 
barebacking, getting married, & living monogamously)?  Would 
gossiping about Andrew Sullivan or any other gay conservative help 
effect A or B?  If A, it's all well & good; however, if B, outing 
hypocrisy doesn't lead to any greater civil rights & liberties on the 
sexual front -- in fact, it may diminish them.

Outing hypocrisy, in essence, is a way of paying homage to professed 
morals that hypocrites fail to obey.  I don't think leftists should 
set store by it.

Yoshie