It occured to me a very long time ago that maybe the real story is not about Andrew Sullivan.

Maybe, just maybe, the real story or sub-textis Sexual McCarthyism in the gay mainstream of America.

Is Andrew Sullivan the story plot or is Andrew Sullivan being used to generate increased social consciousness about how Sexual McCarthyism has crept into gay politics as it has in mainstream American politics?

Is the issue Andrew Sullivan's alledged promiscuous hypocrisy? If distortions and character assassination were going to stop Andrew Sullivan, he would have stopped writing a long time ago.

Or, is the real issue whether the new sexual McCarthyism creates an atmosphere in which only a handful of people dare to question publicly the prevailing vision and attitudes within Gay America?

If it succeeds in discrediting ideas and facts it cannot answer, in intimidating others into silence, then the whole attempt to resolve urgent social issues will have to be abandoned to those with fashionable cliches and political cant -- what has been aptly called "Whitespeak".