When Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was elected in 2018, she was heralded by her fellow Democrats as a barrier-breaking icon: the first openly bisexual woman to be elected to the Senate. Yet the fanfare didn’t last long.
In a sad but revealing affair, the woke Left has since turned on the Arizona senator over political disagreements with her relatively centrist and fiscally conservative voting record. In the most recent example, NBC News just published an outlandish op-ed accusing the senator of being “bad for bisexuals” and claiming that she is seen as “a self-absorbed Democratic turncoat more fixated on getting attention and lining her own pockets than uplifting her community.” The author, a bisexual woman named Lux Alptraum, declared that Sinema is “no longer a bi icon” but is “now held up as a cautionary tale about the limits of representation.”
“Sinema seems to embody many of the nasty assumptions about bi women I’ve worked my whole life to avoid,” Alptraum wrote. “‘Is she bad for the bisexuals?’ I find myself wondering on a nearly daily basis. It feels uncharitable to put so much responsibility on one woman’s shoulders. Yet given that she’s arguably the most prominent bisexual woman in the nation, it feels fair to wish she’d put a little more effort into being a bit less of a stereotype.”
“In practice, it’s clear that politicians from marginalized backgrounds don’t always act in the best interests of their community,” she concluded. “Sinema herself is proof of that.”
Unfortunately, this irrational and hostile view is not solely the view of one NBC News writer. The left-wing website LGBTQNation published an article arguing that “LGBTQ people need to wash our hands of Kyrsten Sinema” because in failing to support liberal plans such as repealing the filibuster, she is “betraying the LGBTQ community she claims to support.” Bitch Media similarly ran a piece arguing that Sinema is an example of the shortcomings of “queer representation” because she voted “against the best interests of queer women” by opposing a $15 minimum wage.
Similar examples abound throughout woke media. To be clear, not all Democrats have such reductive and intolerant attitudes toward members of the gay, lesbian, or bisexual communities who think differently. Yet, clearly, a significant segment of the Left does, and in doing so, it completely betrays its purported commitment to diversity, inclusion, and tolerance. As journalist Glenn Greenwald noted, a similar intolerance can be found in woke media coverage of African American celebrities such as Dave Chappelle and Kyrie Irving who go against liberal orthodoxy and are thus dubbed “black pawns on a white chessboard.”
A clear message from American media liberalism to all members of traditionally marginalized groups: govern yourselves accordingly. pic.twitter.com/NvrJNbcBp1
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 27, 2021
It’s insane that this even needs to be said, but gay, lesbian, and bisexual people are entitled to their own thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives. They are not obligated to vote a certain way or hold a particular policy belief in order to be legitimately or authentically representative of their sexuality. It is nothing short of bigoted to claim that they must side with progressives on complex issues of public policy such as $3.5 trillion spending plans, multitrillion-dollar tax hikes, huge increases in the minimum wage, or abolishing the filibuster.
If anything, Sinema should be heralded as a bisexual icon for more than just because she has broken barriers and glass ceilings. She has offered the world an evidently much-needed reminder that LGBTQ people are individuals and do not owe one party blind political allegiance any more than anyone else does.
If the woke Left really cares about equality and tolerance, it needs to embrace those values even for minorities who think differently — not condemn them as traitorous for merely coming down on a different side of complex public policy debates.
Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a libertarian-conservative journalist and a Washington Examiner contributor. Subscribe to his YouTube channel or email him at [email protected].
