Did Politico Just Out Donna Shalala?
By Rob Anderson - Jul 1st, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I don’t know if the rumors about former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala being a lesbian are true. In fact, I don’t think many people do: Shalala rarely talks about her personal life and doesn’t publically acknowledge if she is in a relationship (as far as I, with the help of Google, can tell). Because the rumor is just that–a statement without known authority for its truth–it seems obvious that no respectable news outlet would print it without a good reason (and great sources).
The Politico obviously disagrees.
In a piece about longshot vice presidential candidates that ran earlier this week, Lisa Lerer had this to say about Shalala:
Shalala currently serves as president of the University of Miami (swing state alert!) where she teaches political science. During her presidency, she’s wrangled with unions over employment issues, which, depending on who you ask, could help or hurt in the general election.
There’s no doubt, though, that Republicans would try to associate her with every left-wing professor and academic group in the school. Are middle American voters ready to find out what LGBT stands for? [emphasis mine]
I know, I know. If a reader didn’t already know about the rumors, then it wouldn’t be obvious that the last sentence was in reference to Shalala’s perceived sexuality. (In that case, it could be interpreted as being a comment on left-wing professors and academic groups.) But I’d be shocked if Lerer and her editors were oblivious to the Washington whispers. Actually, it’s a part of their job descriptions to be aware of them.
To me, the fact that the Politico chose to insert a wink-wink-nod-nod acknowledgment of Shalala’s “sexuality” is worse than if the paper just addressed the question head on. Making the rumor a punchline smacks of smarmy locker-room innuendo—and a little bit of between-the-lines homophobia, too.
The Politico shouldn’t have printed the comment as is, and now that it has, the editors should apologize.
A reader who didn’t know about the rumors would just be confused–there’s nothing in the previous graf that has anything to do with Shalala’s sexuality or public position on LGBT rights–so at best, it’s a pretty poorly written statement.
July 1st, 2008 at 4:34 pmI also didn’t know (or care, really) about rumors re: Donna Shalala, and I agree with Annika that it seems more like a badly written sentence.
What I think the writer was TRYING to say was that having Donna Shalala on the ticket would mean that the campaign would be filled with finding all the Ward Churchills in MIAMI and scaring the sheltered midwestern white folks with images of gay pride parades–and THAT is how they’d “learn what LGBT stands for.”
My guess, at least.
July 1st, 2008 at 9:35 pm[...] utterly bizarre choices for both sides as outlined by Politico; of interest in particular is their description of Donna Shalala, who would be the first Arab-American, but not the first woman, to get the VP nod, [...]
July 1st, 2008 at 11:00 pmActually when she was president of Hunter College in New York City, Shalala’s lesbian relationships were apparent and well noted. He Hunter lawyer, Linda Howard would regale people with stories of how Shalala used to fire married men working in the Carter HUD offices. Some woman.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:20 am