Barney talks about John Locke in OUT Magazine:
What Rogers does makes some Democrats squeamish, because they think no one should ever decide for someone else when he must come out of the closet. But Representative Frank is not among Rogers's detractors.
"I think what Rogers does is legitimate," Frank tells me. "I think hypocrisy is something to go after. If you had pro-life people having abortions, or if Sarah Brady had a gun, there would be no hesitation. Think of any other context in which people would be allowed to blatantly violate the public policies they advocate and say, 'I have a right to keep this secret.'"
The erudite Frank -- often voted the smartest member of Congress by Hill staffers -- cites John Locke's second treatise on civil government as the "philosophical grounding" for his position.
"Locke says that one of the major arguments for, in effect, representative government is, if the people who make the laws are not subject to the laws, they will make bad laws with impunity," Frank says. "That was a very important principle in the document that was the single most important influence on our Constitution. A basic principle of free government is that rulers must be subject to the laws they make."
Squeamish! And you need to ask why we lose elections to the most hypocritical of all.
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3 Comments
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Locke? And here I thought it was the "What Comes Around Goes Around Treatise".
Squeamish souls (no Frank/Signorile allusion implied) should consider that being able to chose when to out oneself is a privledge denied many queer people based upon appearance or the unavoidably public nature of transitioning for transgender people.
They should focus more on making the world safe for lgbt folks - so people wouldn't have to fear being outed - then on insuring the closet door is thick enough.
If you're going to injure a people and you're seeking to excuse yourelf from the same treatment; you have no one to blame but yourself for the treatment you receive when your identity becomes known. However it becomes public knowledge.
Kathy | April 21, 2008 12:47 PM
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John Locke is so yesterday. He's deader than disco. Does anyone really give a shit?
Serena Freewomyn | April 21, 2008 4:19 PM
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Mike, you should call me today. I might have a live one for you.
Bil Browning | April 22, 2008 7:32 AM
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