Politico Slammed for Linking AIDS to 'Decadent Homosexual Lifestyle'

[left-of-center2012]

Source: Advocate

Politico came in for a storm of criticism after a senior staff writer for the website, Michael Kruse, wrote in a piece that former Trump adviser and Republican fixer Roy Cohn died from AIDS as a “result of the decadent homosexual lifestyle he denied to the end.”

The language in the piece was amended several hours after publication to remove the phrase “decadent homosexual lifestyle,” an editor’s note followed several hours later after multiple inquires from TheWrap and others online.

“An earlier version of this story contained language about Roy Cohn that was deemed insensitive and has been removed,” reads a terse statement at the top of the article.

“I don’t understand how Politico had enough [gall] to publish this very homophobic/HIV stigmatizing piece,” one commenter wrote. Another added, “This is so insanely irresponsible.”

Read more: https://www.advocate.com/media/2018/8/21/politico-slammed-linking-aids-decadent-homosexual-lifestyle

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Politico:
“I never worked for a better man or a greater cause. … he sizzled up the American landscape like nobody before and nobody since,” Cohn said in his autobiography, which came out in 1988, two years after he died from AIDS, the result of the decadent homosexual lifestyle he denied to the end, and a year after his avid protégé gave his first political speech and released The Art of the Deal ... “

[Coventina]

1. Mr. Kruse, 1982 called, they want their homophobia back.

(Not that it was OK in 1982 either, but really, geez, I thought mainstream publications had better standards now)

[bitterross]

2. Why is the truth offensive?

I'm a gay man. My reading of that sentence is about one person's decadent lifestyle. Not about all gay men. I don't see why I should read that as a broad brush and believe he meant that about all gay men.

If Cohn had died of alcoholism and the sentence read "two years after he died from cirrhosis of the liver, the result of the decadent alcoholic lifestyle he denied to the end" it would not have meant that all people who drink are alcoholics and deserve to die.

I think people are being offended because they choose to be. That's just silly.

[moriah]

3. Actually, I'd have laughed out loud if Politico had said that about Roy Cohn, but...

... with "decadent" or whatever smear the writer could establish Cohn used himself against homosexuals as he drove them out of government in quotes vs said as if they were serious.

I know there were many people who remained closeted because either they themselves or the society they lived in couldn't accept gay as okay, but Roy Cohn went beyond merely staying in his own closet -- to driving hundreds of people out of their jobs and setting governmental policy not reversed until Clinton.

[bettyellen]

4. Because one partner gave him AIDS. One. So it was not due to any "decadence".

[moriah]

5. May have not been "decadent" in anything except his own hypocrisy, I admit.

Then again, that's because I feel hypocrisy to the degree Roy Cohn exhibited is sinful, unprincipled, and immoral (the first dictionary definition). Not everyone was ready to come marching out of the closet in response to an AIDS diagnosis or the epidemic, but then again not everyone spent a majority of their governmental career claiming gays were security risks because of potential blackmail exposure.

As I indicated in my response, if someone is going to use s gay slur against him, they really ought to dig up ones he used against gay people himself and put them in quotes.

[bitterross]

7. Please, by all accounts he had a string of young men.

As a gay man who grew up in the pre-AIDs era and lived through the height of it l have a good idea of what people like Roy Cohn and I were doing. It included lots of alcohol, drugs and sex. Power players like Cohn were most definitely decadent.

[bettyellen]

8. And yet, it takes one partner to get AIDS- no matter your lifestyle.

I lived through the height of it too, and saw too many college freshman walking around with karposi’s sarcoma.
Damn their decadent lifestyles too?

[bitterross]

13. Don't make false comparisons

College students should not be comparisons with adult hypocrites. They were the innocent and Cohn was not.

[moriah]

19. The problem really was that instead of choosing a description of homosexuality Cohn himself used...

... and putting it in quotes, to highlight that hypocrisy, they said it without putting it in quotes, without showing that the writer wasn't saying HIV infection came from a sinful lifestyle (one of the dictionary definitions of "decadent", going beyond accusations of not moderating behavior and implying homosexuality itself is wrong). Bad word to use.

And let's face it. Even pre-treatment era, HIV has a significant incubation period. If he died in 1986, it's probable he was infected before people knew how the virus was transmitted, or even for certain it was a virus at all. Certainly before routine testing was available. Definitely while there was still controversy even in the community itself about how best to practice and promote safer sex without condemning love between men and physical expression of it altogether, especially because they still didn't know which more intimate activities *were* safer.

If he was immoral or sinful in anything he did, it was the hypocrisy. As far as I know no one who was with him has accused him of rape, nor were any of the "boys" underage. He was as much a victim when it came to getting AIDS as any college student.

Fuck, nobody with that disease "deserves" it, which implications about catching it even with knowingly engaging in "risky" behavior implies. My Dad got it in 1992, and yes, he knew he wasn't being as safe as he could be. I still wouldn't wish his death 17 years later on the worst criminal. When the meds stop working, it's just as ugly of a way to die as it was in the 80s.

Cohn was, however, a perpetrator in driving gay people out of government jobs and those in them further into the closest, plus invaded closets routinely. Which is why, had the writer taken the time to find something directly from Cohn's mouth that described himself and placed it in quotes, I would have found it witty.

Instead, it simply added more stigma to what people living with HIV already experience.

[bitterross]

20. Again. Why are people being like Biblical literalists?

Once again, you are taking a single phrase out of a larger article about a specific person and his specific behavior and generalizing it.

I don't buy it when people quote me Leviticus. Why should I buy it from you?

[moriah]

23. Back up, bucko.

I just spoke about losing my Dad to the disease and you're accusing me of acting like a Bible-thumper?

You can ignore the connotations and dictionary definitions of slurs all you want, but it doesn't change reality. It was stupid wording, and every victim of AIDS is "innocent" in that *no* one deserves it, no matter who they fuck or how often. What he was guilty of is hypocrisy and persecution of others, and that still didn't make him deserve death. It shouldn't be ignored, but neither should his sexual choices be what is criticized. His hypocrisy should be.

I don't care about his closet being invaded after death because he invaded so many closets in life, but I do care when people start deciding which victims of a devastating disease are "innocent" or "guilty".

If you want to equate that with Biblical literalism, then we don't need to talk anymore.

[bitterross]

24. The love of my life died of the disease. Do not lecture me on this subject.

Yes, I am accusing you and every other person of acting like a Bible-thumper. They are not objective. They take single phrases out of an entire work and use them to batter people. They claim that they are just using the common dictionary meanings of things too.

I never said Cohn deserved to die. You read that into my words. I said Cohn deserved to be called out for his hypocrisy. I said that what the author wrote was the truth and that people were inferring too much from it. I think you have proved my point. You read into it what you wanted just like you read into my words something I didn't say.

ON Edit: Just because the truth is unpleasant or uncomfortable it doesn't mean we should not face it.

[moriah]

25. You'd think you'd not lecture me either, then.

I'm not going to try to compare or contrast different losses to AIDS, but I was the only person he had left in the end. I was there. I loved him all my life. And I still do.

When you start saying who is an "innocent" victim of AIDS and who is "not" after talking about the facts of his life in the bedroom, though, it's pretty damn necessary to clarify just what you are condeming them for. Which is why I responded clarifying what I thought his real offenses actually were.

Take care.

[qazplm135]

27. English is a complex language

but it ain't that complex.

Decadent is being used to describe something. What could that be? well, what word is it next to?
Homosexual.

This isn't rocket science.

[bettyellen]

30. It's what the writer was doing implying AIDS chose Cohn becasue he's a bad man. Life doesn't work

that way. I remember other college kids judging those kids too. He dated the wrong person, or he want to “the baths” and so brought it on himself. Fuck all of that.

[LanternWaste]

9. In his phrasing, he implicitly qualified 'homosexual' with 'decadent.'

Hence, either his grammar usage is below standard educational levels, or he's stating homosexuality itself is inherently decadent.

One does not say "decadent straight lifestyle.' One merely says 'decadent lifestyle,' as 'straight' is irrelevant.

"I think people are ignoring this offense simply because they choose to. That's not silly, that's just sad..."

[bitterross]

12. I disagree.

Of course no one says "decadent straight lifestyle." You are correct that just saying someone lived a decadent lifestyle would be sufficient without the word straight.

He lived a decadent homosexual lifestyle though, denied it and persecuted other homosexuals. It was perfectly appropriate to point out what a hypocrite he was by underscoring the homosexual part.

It's not a dig at homosexuals in general it is a dig at Cohn specifically.

I think people are inferring far too much from the phrase.

[qazplm135]

28. I think you don't like the guy

so you are straining to not have any offense given to him.

I get the former, he was an odious guy...I don't get the latter.

[MosheFeingold]

10. I think a better choice

Would have been “decadent sexual lifestyle”.

Unprotected sex with a lot of people is stupid and risky. There are nasty bugs out there that are rapidly becoming just as deadly as HIV.

And it’s a stupid thing to do, regardless of sexual orientation.

[Snellius]

11. Agree. nt

[qazplm135]

26. because alcoholism IS a lifestyle

being gay is not.

Is being heterosexual a "lifestyle?"

Is there evidence that he was infected with AIDS because he was sleeping around a lot?

Do we type, Magic Johnson, who is HIV+ because of his decadent heterosexual lifestyle?

I mean you can be decadent all you want...if you wear a condom every time, your chances are pretty low of getting AIDS, or you can have committed sex with one partner and still get AIDS, so the two are not all that related.

[Behind the Aegis]

6. Glad they were called out on this homophobic twaddle.

Even if his lifestyle was decadent (an opinion), the qualifier of "homosexual" was not needed nor even relevant. It is just another way for some to paint homosexuality as a choice and as dangerous. No wonder there are bigots who still believe this, as well as those who make excuses for it, including people who are gay (or claim to be), who always seem to indulge homophobia and heterosexism.

[bitterross]

14. The article is about Cohn SPECIFICALLY, not homosexuals GENERALLY. Are you literalists now?

People here are acting like Bible literalists taking one phrase in a larger story out of context.

Roy Cohn lived a decadent homosexual lifestyle. He had a string of young blonde boys. The article is about Roy Cohn and his behaviors. Not, not about homosexuals.

The author would have been remiss to NOT say he lived a decadent homosexual lifestyle.

[CreekDog]

15. then why mention the "homosexual" part at all?

the "homosexual" aspect is irrelevant to whether it was decadent or not.

[bitterross]

16. Because he was a big hypocrite about homosexuals. Not an irrelevant point

Fucking duh.

[qazplm135]

29. and this

is why you are straining so hard here...you hate the guy so fuck him, problem is that terminology gets used for guys (and gals) you don't hate and it's hurtful.

[CreekDog]

32. you're doing backflips to defend the phrase "decadent homosexual lifestyle"

but then again, you've used some interesting language yourself.

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=10703317

[RhodeIslandOne]

17. Probably to foreshadow the underlying hypocrisy of his life's work

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender_scare

[left-of-center2012]

18. The article didn't say Cohn was decadent

Last edited Wed Aug 22, 2018, 11:14 PM - Edit history (1)

It said "the decadent homosexual lifestyle".

[bitterross]

21. Stop taking it out of context. That is total BULLSHIT.

It said:

the decadent homosexual lifestyle he denied to the end

NOT JUST "the decadent homosexual lifestyle."

Anyone with the slightest competence in English comprehension would know this is about a specific person. Not a class of people.

Don't be obtuse on purpose. It is disingenuous.

[left-of-center2012]

22. ROTFLMAO

Thanks for the good laugh.

Much appreciated.

[NickB79]

31. The gay version of slut-shaming?

🤔