To the Editor:

As I read your editorial on Congressman Michaud’s recent announcement regarding his sexual orientation (“Michaud is not out front” Nov. 5, Page A6), the word that came to mind was “snarky.”

You used one of the oldest tricks in the book of setting up a straw man — “…one might say…that coming out is an act of political courage” — only to knock it down.

Of course, Michaud never claimed coming out was courageous; he was simply being himself. Your sardonic response to that was, “about time,” as if it is somehow an obligation of gay and lesbian public figures to share with everyone what goes on in their bedrooms.

I may have missed it, but I’m not aware that the editor of The Times Record has been public about his sexual orientation — and, believe me, I’m not interested. In the congressman’s own words, “Why should it matter?”

Everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, has a right to privacy — even our public servants.

The editorial goes on to argue that, now that we know Mike Michaud is gay, his “curious voting record on gay-rights issues…can’t be explained away by an ‘evolving position’ on the issue.” So heterosexuals are allowed to change their minds about public policy, but not gays?

Mike Michaud has indeed evolved on this and a good many other issues, and in that, he’s in good company; a great many Maine citizens are in a very different place today on such issues from where they were a decade ago.

One might call it openmindedness. That’s a kind of evolution The Times Record really ought to consider.

The Rev.

Frank C. Strasburger

Brunswick