Pinkerton on Gays

James Pinkerton, in his perhaps serious June 25 Column Right, “Wilde Things: Being Earnest in Washington,” fantasizes through Oscar Wilde’s eyes that “the closets of silence no longer confine most American homosexuals . . . Now it is the flagrant heterosexuals who are entombed in reticence.” What an interesting comparison! And yet it has no basis in fact. Most American gays are still in the closet.

They feel no freedom to explore the sorts of relationships openly that their heterosexual counterparts enjoy. They explore their relationships silently, among themselves, for fear of embarrassment, exposure or even worse. How odd that such small openings in the closet of silence as we’ve seen in recent years can be perceived by some as undermining the American (i.e., heterosexual) way of life. What kind of fantasy is that?

JOSEPH D. RAMSEY, San Diego