Hitchens Comments on Senator Craig
It was inevitable that Christopher Hitchens would comment on Senator Craig’s resignation. It would not be Hitchens’ style to be compassionate, but his article is gentle in its awareness of the self-hating that characterizes those like Craig. Discussing a relevant study by Laud Humphrey, Hitchens goes on to say:
“The men interviewed by Humphreys wanted what many men want: a sexual encounter that was quick and easy and didn’t involve any wining and dining. Some of the heterosexuals among them had also evolved a tactic for dealing with the cognitive dissonance that was involved. They compensated for their conduct by adopting extreme conservative postures in public. Humphreys, a former Episcopalian priest, came up with the phrase “breastplate of righteousness” to describe this mixture of repression and denial. So it is quite thinkable that when Sen. Craig claims not to be gay, he is telling what he honestly believes to be the truth.”
Craig’s hypocrisy is not only his burden to bear, it is also a reflection of a society very ill at ease with same-sex attraction, a realization which forces many who long to be accepted only farther into a closet they may never find their way out of.
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“If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm.”
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