Edith H. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. A Book that Made A Difference Bruce Bawer's A Place at the Table , the most important book on gay issues to appear in the Nineties, infuriated gay radicals but inspired countless other gays who identified with the American mainstream, and pointed the way toward understanding and accommodation on the part of the straight majority. It isn't often that one book makes such a difference. If we could show the broad middle ground of American opinion that gays do not monolithically oppose them on a range of important economic and social issues, we might begin to win their trust and support. Yet many of our gay organizations and leaders still reflexively take stands that seem calculated to offend centrist opinion.
Further lessons remain to be learned.
When President George W. Bush named Scott Evertz to head the White House AIDS office, thus becoming the first Republican president to name an openly gay appointee to a visible public post, a couple of interesting things didn't happen. The First Amendment has been the single most important constitutional text for gay Americans, protecting us even when we were social outcasts. When politicians in South Dakota and Oklahoma City recently tried to single out gay advocates for silencing, they became the latest in a long list of adversaries to learn the power of the constitutional guarantee of free speech. Julian Schnabel's acclaimed new film Before Night Falls , based on the life of the writer Reinaldo Arenas, chronicles the brutality of the Castro regime in Cuba, especially toward the country's gays, who have even more reason than other Cubans to wish for a speedy end to dictatorial rule. The prospect of letting gays serve openly in the armed forces raises concerns about sexual privacy that are legitimate, but not insoluble.