Garrison Keillor Apologizes for the Misunderstanding

Garrison Keillor issued an apology for the "misunderstanding" he created in a column last week, an apparently "tongue in cheek" look at parenting and the good old days. For many, including myself, the tongue was not far enough into the cheek. Here's a portion of the apology:

"I live in a small world—the world of entertainment, musicians, writers—in which gayness is as common as having brown eyes. Ever since I was in college, gay men and women have been friends, associates, heroes, adversaries, and in that small world, we talk openly and we kid each other and think nothing of it. But in the larger world, gayness is controversial. In almost every state, gay marriage would be voted down if put on a ballot. Gay men and women have been targeted by the right wing as a hot-button issue. And so gay people out in the larger world feel besieged to some degree. In the small world I live in, they feel accepted and cherished as individuals, but in the larger world they may feel like Types. My column spoke as we would speak in my small world and it was read by people in the larger world and thus the misunderstanding. And for that, I am sorry. Gay people who set out to be parents can be just as good parents as anybody else, and they know that, and so do I."

Dan Savage has a thoughtful analysis of exactly why Keillor just didn't get it. I do accept Keillor's apology, but somehow I doubt he's naive enough to believe his column isn't being read by more than a handful of folks in Small Town, Minnesota.

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Garrison Keillor longs for the good old days in this essay on what children need in Salon. You know, the days when the world wasn't bothered by all these non-monogamous, flamboyant homosexuals that want to raise children.

"I grew up the child of a mixed-gender marriage that lasted until death parted them, and I could tell you about how good that is for children, and you could pay me whatever you think it's worth."

This is from a man who has been married three times, and has two children with two different wives.

"Under the old monogamous system, we didn't have the problem of apportioning Thanksgiving and Christmas among your mother and stepdad, your dad and his third wife, your mother-in-law and her boyfriend Hal, and your father-in-law and his boyfriend Chuck. Today, serial monogamy has stretched the extended family to the breaking point."

This is from a man known for dumping a Prairie Home Companion producer who had been his longtime lover in order to marry his second wife. That marriage failed when he was discovered to be having an affair with his Danish language teacher.

And last, but not least:

"The country has come to accept stereotypical gay men -- sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers and go in for flamboyance now and then themselves. If they want to be accepted as couples and daddies, however, the flamboyance may have to be brought under control. Parents are supposed to stand in back and not wear chartreuse pants and black polka-dot shirts. That's for the kids. It's their show."

It's not the first time he's gone off on gay marriage.

ADDENDUM: More from Dan Savage.

Stating the Obvious [salon