Terry McAuliffe, Yasser Arafat and J.K. Rowling

Today I was editing an endnote on the death of Yasser Arafat and I noticed that we didn’t mention the cause of death. I figured it could be worth including, so I did some research, and realized that for the sake of brevity and neutrality, we left it out for a reason. Apparently, his death is a somewhat of a mystery and is every bit as polarizing as his life. I can’t tell if the cause of death was actually as nebulous as some reports make it sound, or whether people were just looking for a way to eek out one more statement about Arafat. Many supporters claimed that Arafat had been poisoned a month before his death and had slowly died as a result of conspiracy. Several right wing sources argued rather triumphantly that Arafat died of AIDS, a claim the New York Times dismissed, but that led to a stream of chatter about the former PLO chairman’s sexuality.

Apparently, in former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe’s autobiography, he reported that Arafat had made a pass at him at a dinner party by stroking his leg. True or not true, I think it’s pretty cheap of McAuliffe to put it in his autobiography. At best the reason for including it is because sex sells. (I suspect that if a powerful woman included every man in a position of authority who made a move on her in her autobiography, the book would be longer and half as well-respected.) At worst, it seems like an extension of the sort of thing fourth graders do, making ‘gay’ into an insult. “You missed the goal. You’re gay.” “You failed the spelling test. You’re gay.” “You’re the leader of the Palestinians. You’re gay.” Even if McAuliffe didn’t see Arafat’s sexuality that way, he had to be aware that was the mindset he was playing into. I’m glad J.K. Rowlings’ 13^th hour revelation of Dumbledore’s sexuality at least offers a pop culture alternative. Happy coming out week, Swarthmore College.

Is it fun to speculate about Arafat’s sexuality? Kind of. Is it appropriate for an American leader (or journalists) to encourage such highly charged speculation in order to increase sales and media attention? I don’t think so.