I live in the suburbs of Washington, D. C., so I see at least the headlines of many local Washington area newspapers, even when they are not papers I'm accustomed to reading. And a couple of days ago I saw the headline of the Washington Blade, a newspaper that caters to the gay and Lesbian community. The headline said: "Gay intern credited with saving Giffords." Now, I wonder what the sexual identity of the intern mattered here — though, of course, there is no reason that the Blade would even cover the story, except that Daniel Hernandez, the intern in question, is gay. (From his name, it's clear that he is Hispanic; there has not been, however, a flurry of headlines in the Latino press about a Hispanic intern helping to save Rep. Giffords' life.)
Sexual identity, like race, religion, ethnicity, and some other traits, is a way that people do get categorized in the United States these days. But really, if you look at the story (and I don't regularly read the Blade, but they have a Web site and I found it there) it is clear that Hernandez' interning for Rep. Giffords had little to do with "gay issues," that his being gay had no relevance to his saving her life, and that this whole thing seems just a way for the Blade to put a gay spin on the Arizona tragedy.
Sexual identity, like race, religion, ethnicity, and some other traits, is a way that people do get categorized in the United States these days. But really, if you look at the story (and I don't regularly read the Blade, but they have a Web site and I found it there) it is clear that Hernandez' interning for Rep. Giffords had little to do with "gay issues," that his being gay had no relevance to his saving her life, and that this whole thing seems just a way for the Blade to put a gay spin on the Arizona tragedy.
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