I Can’t Write the Anti-Gay Argument for Him
No one wants to be called a ‘bigot’ or a ‘fascist’. But it’s not my job to give him alternate explanations for his reasons or feelings.
One tiny interaction with a fellow student has stuck in my memory for the last 20 years. We were in a journalism graduate program at Boston University. I was there in the Fall 2003 and Spring and Fall 2004 semesters, so it happened within that time frame. I don’t remember who the student was. He and I approached the instructor — who must have been Bob Zelnick—after class.
Zelnick, the department chair, was planning a public debate on same-sex marriage, newly legalized in Massachusetts by a court ruling. He himself was a bit of skeptic and thought it needed to be debated. The other student seemed to take a similarly cautious, frowning approach.
(Same-sex marriage now has over 80% support in Massachusetts according to public opinion polls.)
I don’t remember the preceding discussion or what we were asking the instructor about.
I may have said in class that I was gay. This identity had felt unremarkable when I had been an undergraduate at Brown University, but I seem to remember that, when I casually remarked upon it at the journalism program at…
