From alaura@u.washington.edu Tue Apr 23 09:32:30 1996 Return-Path: Received: from homer14.u.washington.edu by lists.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW96.03/UW-NDC Revision: 2.33 ) id AA20787; Tue, 23 Apr 96 09:32:29 -0700 Received: from localhost by homer14.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW96.04/UW-NDC Revision: 2.33 ) id AA86881; Tue, 23 Apr 96 09:32:29 -0700 Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 09:32:28 -0700 (PDT) From: Suzanne Klinger To: uwtpride@u.washington.edu Subject: Barbara Jordan Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII The message/speech that Jackie posted was interesting. I disagree rather strongly with most of the author's points, however. Among other points that it raised (with which I disagree) is the claim that one's "private life" can be removed from politics in an ethically legitimate way. I agree with Richard Mohr (a philosopher of law) who argues that there are major distinctions between privacy and enforced secrecy, and believe that while the details of my home and personal life are mine to keep "private," my sexual-affectional orientation and aspects of my identity that are public (like my partnership) are not parts of my "private life." They are parts of major public debates & legal-political oppressions, and as such, cannot be equated with what I ate for dinner last night. When we have laws and stigma that attack celebrities for being married and having children, then I will see the author's equation of the Alec Baldwin case and the Barbara Jordan example as having some validity. I think that the ideas in the message raise important topics that we must discuss more...lots of territory for Pride to cover. Suzanne Klinger .