Cory Booker is right. It is wonderful that some people think he’s gay.
Booker, Newark’s Twitter loving mayor and perhaps New Jersey’s next senator, is the golden child of urban mayors in the media despite the persistent whispers that he’s gay—a death knell for most politicians’ careers.
Progress has been made with gay rights over the years, but being a man with a wife and kids is still the standard expectation of most elected officials.
Yet Booker continues to be a media darling. Shoveling snow for his constituents, rescuing a woman from a burning building and even saving a shivering puppy have women and media outlets swooning over the Yale graduate.
Jezebel even did a hilarious piece on Booker called “Cory Booker is a Great Imaginary Boyfriend, but Probably Sucks in Real Life.”
Booker has no shortage of attention from women, but the 44-year-old has never been married and has never publicly acknowledged having a girlfriend since he’s been in office. To be fair, there’s probably very little time for a girlfriend when there are so many puppies to be saved and constituents to tweet.
This lack of a love life, or at least a public one anyway, has led some to the conclusion that he must be gay. That is a ridiculous assumption, by the way. Booker’s response to such rumors is brilliant.
“People who think I’m gay, some part of me thinks it’s wonderful. Because I want to challenge people on their homophobia. I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I’m gay, and I say, ‘So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I’m straight,’” said Booker in a Washington Post interview.
Instead of shouting from every rooftop that he’s straight as an arrow or trotting around with a Newark version of Michelle Obama just in time for the election, Booker has chosen to take the moment to illustrate how useless it is to care about a politician’s sexual orientation. Once again, Booker shows his media savvy. He has turned the question on its head and created a broader conversation about homophobia. Indeed, does it matter if your elected official’s chosen partner has a Y chromosome or not?
The fact that the gay rumors persist yet Booker’s star has done nothing but rise, is a sign of progress. Perhaps one day, a politician’s sexual orientation will actually be a non-issue. There will be no such thing as “slandering” someone by saying he or she is gay.
Booker will continue to get questions about his love life. He’s a young-ish, handsome, politician with a charming grin and over a million Twitter followers. Whether reporters are asking about a girlfriend or a boyfriend, the questions will arise and undoubtedly Booker will find the perfect answer and rescue a kitten or two at the same time.
Follow Demetria Irwin on Twitter at @Love_Is_Dope and connect with her on Facebook.