This week’s New Yorker includes an excellent letter from three of Bishop Paul Moore’s children, responding to their sister’s article "outing" their father in the March 3 issue. I also found Honor Moore’s article distasteful; a few scenes felt too choreographed, almost as if they were played out because they would make good set pieces in a New Yorker article. Bishop Moore’s children take issue with "’outing’ a man whose public legacy is great, whose private life he chose to keep private, and whose personal agony often estranged him from many of us who loved him":
We wonder if a history inclusive of gay men, lesbians, and, yes, bisexuals can only be made and understood by delving into the closely held secrets of those who have come before us, especially those who clung fiercely to the closet. Doesn’t it matter, even when someone is dead, that his most fervently held private life, and the unnecessarily explicit details of his marriage, are exposed against his wishes? We believe that it does matter, and that both of our parents’ good legacies have been damaged.More letters here. Tim Reidy
