In case anyone's still interested in Powerline's deception last week, we have a new person weighing in this story: Maya Keyes. You will remember that Powerline had refused to retract an endorsement of Ann Coulter's incorrect claim about the NYTimes outing gay children of prominent conservatives (one of whom was Ms. Keyes), and stood by their criticism of the paper:
I would argue that when the New York Times publicizes the fact that a private citizen, of whom few people have heard, is gay, it is "disclosing" or "revealing" that fact to its readers, a mass audience[...] Either way, what the Times did is deplorable.
Well, Maya Keyes, it seems, ran into my original post, and she linked to it on her own blog. Of Ann Coulter's column, Maya had this to say:
Also, I kinda want to get in touch with Ann Coulter (jeez, I never thought I'd make a statement like that!) to ask her if her lying is an actual diagnosable pathology that can be treated or if she just does it because she likes to.
From here I was directed to this column of hers which is just so horribly untrue that it's almost amusing. She doesn't mention names but it's easy to see who she's talking about. She makes it out like someone outed all of us when in truth we all outed ourselves...
Today, Maya writes more, interestingly:
So, just for the record, let me state unequivocally:
As an openly queer woman, I do not have any problem with people referring to me as an openly queer woman. This is not an invasion of my privacy, it is not anyone else 'outing' me, it is not something that I need anyone's sympathy for. There is plenty else in my life right now that I could use some supportive wishes with but simply being queer is not one of them.
So now that Maya Keyes, one of the people mentioned in the NYTimes column, has said unequivocally that she was not outed by the NYTimes, that she doesn't mind her sexuality being mentioned, and that resents the implication that it's something to be ashamed of, I wonder if Powerline will do the decent thing. They should retract their claim, admit they were wrong, and apologize for not having done it sooner.
I'll post my email to them.
(By the way, lest some wingnut out there is still looking for something to criticize, we'll nip one in the bud: we wrote to Ms. Keyes and asked for her permission to quote her; we recieved a very nice email in reply saying that it was OK.)
-- Michael
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