From Adequate to Generous: NYT Editorial Lubes Up

Wednesday July 11, 2007

Yesterday's New York Times included an editorial criticizing Dr. James Holsinger, George Bush's nominee to be the next Surgeon General. The editorial refers to a 1991 paper Dr. Holsinger prepared for the Committee to Study Homosexuality of The United Methodist Church titled "Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality". The paper is rightly criticized for its use of selective referencing (its bias is so obvious that to anyone who has a basic knowledge of the literature, it reads more like a religious tract than a scientific one).

In his typical role as level-headed peace maker Dan Savage (who claims to be on vacation but clearly isn't) called out both the Times editorial and a critique of the editorial which proposed flooding the Times office with complaint letters about their archaic use of the term "practicing homosexual".

All three pieces are worth reading in any order (always looking out for his straight readership, Dan's piece is the only one to include a reference to pegging). Savage points out that the use of "generous lubrication” in the Times editorial is pushing the sexual explicit envelope a bit. I was pleasantly surprised to discover how true that was, given that the actual wording in the paper is the more demure "adequate lubrication".

Two weeks ago I was in Charlotte attending an advisory committee meeting for the Center of Excellence for Sexual Health (CESH), which is an institute founded by former Surgeon General David Satcher. I can't help but be a little depressed by the fact that we've gone from Dr. Satcher, who produced over a dozen reports during his tenure, including the Surgeon General's Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior and who founded CESH in part to carry out the recommendations of his own report, to this guy.

***UPDATE*** Today the Times leads with a piece about the extent to which the Surgeon General's office has been compromised over the years by political pressures.