In which The Gay Recluse weighs in on a “controversy.”

Obviously, when we endorsed Geraldine Ferraro for president, it was with the expectation that she would hover benovolently in the past and not say unthinking things like: “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman of any color, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”

Though we completely disagree with Ferraro with regard to Obama, we feel her general pain; just as she implicitly compares sexism to racism — to the extent that the former is clearly more tolerated in public discourse than the latter (and for no good reason) — we ourselves have often felt much the same about homophobia (e.g., why is it acceptable for so many public figures to make blatantly homophobic (bigoted) remarks, when a similarly racist viewpoint — publicly aired — would mean the end of a career?). But that said, the fact that racism is less tolerated is obviously a good thing, and has no bearing — except for inspirational purposes (to the extent anything can be truly inspirational) — to continuing problems of sexism (and homophobia). It’s really a case of apples and oranges, and we think that someone of Ferraro’s stature, intelligence and training (she’s a lawyer) should have been able to 1) make the distinction and 2) anticipate the unsavory political backlash.

We still love Ferraro, of course — she will always be a beacon as we remember some of the darkest days of our country’s history — but Obama was right to criticize the comment as being needlessly divisive. If we hadn’t already endorsed him for president, we would do so now.

Geraldine Ferraro: We’ll always love you, but only as you exist in the past.

Barack Obama: We hope you win the election.