Jonah Goldberg seems to complain that being gay is no longer being transgressive or genuinely countercultural or genuinely bohemian. The gays no longer offer us a genuinely “alternative lifestyle” that stands in contrast to the boring bourgeois family. On MODERN FAMILY, the most boring and bourgeois couple is the gay one—and the one most full of the cute doting paranoia of bobo parents. We believe that as long as people adhere to the ethical trinity of health, safety, and consent, they can do what they want. Being openly gay turns out to be perfectly compatible with being a productive and responsible member of society, and productivity, our libertarians tell us, ought to be our only common standard. One advantage of being gay, of course, used to be that it was a sure way to avoid miltary service, but that disappeared when we became—apparently permanently—pro-choice on doing such irksome and dangerous duty to one’s country. That being gay is no longer being transgressive might be really bad for our art and theatre, but life is less cruel, as Rorty says, and in some ways, from the view of the autonomous person, more just. Did we used to be, as the TV says, MAD MEN? Or have things gotten both better and worse, as Jonah suggests but doesn’t really explain? Or what?
