There's a story in today's New York Times about
Britain's spy agency, MI6, and how a top young spy recently died under unusual
circumstances. The article, "Theories and
an inquest after a spy's death," is behind the pay firewall,
and it seems like some awfully thinly veiled homophobia. Let me walk you
through it.
The Times
refers to the agents possibly "sexual misadventure" - meaning, one
theory is that he died during a somewhat unusual sex act that involved stuffing
him in a small duffel bag. Now here's some of the proof from the Times that the
guy might have been sexual misadventurous:
1. He was a
bachelor. (i.e., he was gay?).
2. He went
to transvestite performances (uh, otherwise known as drag).
3. Visited
sites on the Internet dedicated to bondage. (ooh, crazy).
But here's
my "favorite" part of the story.
"MI6
and other spy agencies in Britain... are no strangers to scandals that have
involved the sex lives of some of their greatest talent."
The article
then goes on to list several men who were gay. The first, Alan Turing, was
basically pushed into suicide by British intelligence simply because he was
gay. How exactly is that a "sex scandal"? A bigoted homophobic witch
hunt, yes. Sex scandal, uh not really.
The next
example they give is just as weird. Several English spies fled to the Soviet
Union in the 1950s, and a number of them, according to the Times, "had
homosexual liaisons as young men."
Again, yeah
- who didn't have homosexual liaisons as young men?
The entire
article strikes me badly. If you dare risk one of your ten articles a month,
take a look. I think it's poorly written and poorly edited. Being gay isn't a
scandal, and it most certainly is not a sex scandal. And someone needs to get
out more if they think going to a drag show is evidence of sexual misadventure.
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