He Was ‘Kind of Flabbergasted’

The decision of gay-pride parade organizers to announce that Assessor Kenneth P. Hahn is gay--without first discussing the announcement with him--was unfair and regrettable.

Hahn, who shares his first and last names with Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn but is no relation, was elected county assessor last year. He was one of several local politicians who attended the annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade Sunday in West Hollywood. Hahn was waiting his turn to be introduced; he then was “kind of flabbergasted,” he said, to hear himself described via microphone to the large crowd as the “senior-most elected openly gay official in Los Angeles.”

Hahn was surprised by the introduction because he expected to be treated like any other elected official attending the parade. “My sexual orientation has nothing to do with my job,” he said. “I’ve never been a gay candidate, just a candidate who happened to be gay.”

Hahn has not tried to deny his homosexuality; he has been identified in the gay press and in the Washington Post as a gay politician. But neither has he sought to make a point of his homosexuality. That’s in keeping with his philosophy that his sexual orientation is what he called a “non-issue.”

He’s absolutely right. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with one’s job duties. Unfortunately, however, irrational anti-homosexual feelings remain. That’s one reason some homosexuals choose to keep their sexual orientation private.

One of the gay-pride parade sponsors said organizers made a point of identifying Hahn because “whenever there is someone in the public eye who acknowledges (his homosexuality) . . . it helps the movement.” But the movement includes many people--people who live openly as gays and work on behalf of gay-oriented issues; others who choose to keep their sexual orientation private, and others, such as Hahn, who acknowledge their homosexuality but choose the approach, as one gay activist put it, “(of) not denying anything, it’s just saying, ‘Let’s move on.’ ”

The latter approach is the one Hahn chose. It should have been respected.