New York Times Leftist Calls For Gay Reparations

Reparations are ridiculous. That’s really all there is to it.

As I mentioned a few days ago, any conversation about reparations brings up more questions than it does answers. Who gets them? Who pays for them? How do we prove the “right” people are receiving them? Why are others being punished for something they had no part in?

So many questions with no right answer. Reparations simply don’t make sense.

But Democrats don’t really care about what makes sense. They care about what creates and reinforces victimhood status…

And now, there’s another victim class that should probably get paid for their victimhood.

The New York Times published an op-ed by Omar G. Encarnación calling for reparations for gay people:

The New York Police Department apologized last week to the gay community for the 1969 raid of the Stonewall Inn, the fallout of which is widely credited with spurring the contemporary gay rights movement at home and abroad.

Timed to coincide with Stonewall’s 50th anniversary, the statement by Commissioner James P. O’Neill said in part: “The actions taken by the N.Y.P.D. were wrong — plain and simple” and “the actions and the laws were discriminatory and oppressive, and for that, I apologize.”

The apology is the culmination of a decades-old struggle by gay activists for recognition of wrongdoing on the part of the police — one that few activists thought could ever become a reality.

The apology, however, is not enough.

It’s never enough.

With the surprise apology, the United States has taken its most significant leap yet into “gay reparation,” or policies intended to address the legacy of state-sanctioned repression of homosexuals.

Although relatively new to the United States, gay reparation has been debated and legislated around the world for close to two decades and is a logical progression in the maturation of the gay rights movement.

Having largely secured rights once thought to be virtually unattainable — especially same-sex marriage — gay activists, especially in Western democracies, are turning their attention to addressing the historical legacies of homosexual repression.

What I’m hearing is: “Once same-sex marriage becomes legal, “Activists’ have to find something new to complain about. We’e going for reparations now.” Is that about right?

Although there is no one-size-fits-all model when it comes to gay reparation, countries have taken three distinct approaches. The most common is “moral rehabilitation,” which entails a formal apology by the state and the expunging of criminal records of those convicted of a homosexual offense.

There’s also financial compensation for loss of income and pensions. Finally, there’s “truth-telling,” or an official report on past wrongs that incorporates steps for reparation. These are not mutually exclusive approaches; in fact, as recent experiences show, they are often pursued simultaneously or sequentially.

So… there you go.

Here’s what we’re dealing with now.