Crossing the Line Between Private Life and Public Office

She has never married. She has no children. Our attorney general-designate has no nanny problem, no pesky tax troubles. From all descriptions, it appears she has virtually no life at all outside work. How lucky we are! In Miami prosecutor Janet Reno, we at last have the perfect candidate.

At 54, Reno, in her unfashionable glasses and nondescript blue dress, is a little dowdy, a little self-deprecating. Not your expensively suited corporate lawyer type. Certainly not your former Playboy bunny type.

She is a no-frills, non-threatening workaholic. Gets to the office at 6 a.m. to study Spanish. Lives on the edge of the Everglades--without air conditioning, locks or television. All work, no play. Ascetic, eccentric. And did you notice how tall she is? At 6 feet 2 inches, she virtually towered over the President in their Rose Garden press conference last week.

Workaholic? Eccentric? Unmarried?

Could she possibly be . . . ?

The surprise is that Reno answered us before the question fully formed in the national psyche. She didn’t use the L-word. But she alluded to it in a Miami airport press conference last week upon her return from Washington. “The fact is I’m just an awkward old maid with a very great affection for men,” Reno said.

Three years ago, she was more direct. A rabidly intolerant Miami attorney named Jack Thompson, who had run against her in 1988, started rumors that Reno was “a closeted lesbian.” Angry because she refused to prosecute the rap group 2 Live Crew for obscenity, he wrote Florida Gov. Bob Martinez: “If Janet Reno is a pervert, Governor, then why would anyone expect her to prosecute pornographers peddling perversion to children?”

Reno replied: “I am not a lesbian. I am attracted to strong, brave, rational and intelligent men.”

The fact that she felt compelled to mention her heterosexuality last week, however obliquely or humorously, is a sad reflection on the state of tolerance in this society. It’s too bad she felt she had to respond to such nonsense, but it’s hard to ignore someone who tries to whip up hysteria over sexual orientation.

Never-married people in public life continue to be tyrannized by the fact that we live in a society that idealizes the heterosexual couple. The issue of sexual identity for single high achievers is always simmering just below the surface. It affects men and women. Homophobia, after all, is an equal opportunity affliction.

In 1990, when David Souter’s name first surfaced as a possible Supreme Court nominee, his single, equally ascetic lifestyle came under scrutiny. He lived alone, in a “book-cluttered house, at the end of a dirt road.”

Souter, said the profiles, is a “confirmed bachelor,” the male equivalent of the old maid.

It was reported that, before George Bush would nominate him, Souter had to reassure White House aides that he is not gay. A former fiancee was produced to reminisce about their relationship for reporters. (Why else would anyone care about a failed relationship from 1959?)

We are hard on single people who seek to serve us. Some pundits wondered whether a man like Souter, who was not forced to balance the demands of work and family, would be able to empathize with the problems of “ordinary Americans,” as though being single somehow precluded being ordinary.

And we may be harder on women. If a woman has a family, it’s presumed she’ll be distracted. If she doesn’t, her sexuality will be suspect.

Public servants who do declare their homosexuality may face attacks from all sides. Here in Los Angeles, a woman who is running for City Council is being penalized for not being outspoken enough about her homosexuality.

Last month, former Los Angeles school board president and council candidate Jackie Goldberg acknowledged that she is a lesbian. Several gay leaders said they are pleased she has made such a statement, but they won’t back her, because, although she has never hidden it, she has not been open enough about her sexual orientation.

Goldberg’s response was simple and eloquent. “I have lived my life honestly,” she said. “I have just not made a public pronouncement at a press conference.”

Seems to me that’s the way it should be for everyone in public life, gay or straight, single or married.

Live your life honestly. Keep your private life to yourself.

If we act as if sexual orientation doesn’t matter, maybe one day it really won’t.