If they’ve got money to squander like this—of a crucifix being eaten by ants, of Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts, men in chains, naked brothers kissing—then I think we should look at their budget. [It’s] in-your-face perversion paid for by tax dollars.
— Rep. Jack Kingston (R–GA) on FoxNews

A strong show, the first queer-themed exhibit in a national museum, it nevertheless would have been as conspicuous as rain on a distant sea if it weren’t for a few dank straight men who hate gay people.—JoAnn Wypijewski in The Nation

Jed Perl’s . . . dithering “art for art’s sake” formalism engages nothing but its own reactionary yearnings; one wonders if he wears rubber gloves when he types, the better to prissily avoid the messiness of lived history.
—David C. Ward and Jonathan D. Katz, in a letter to The New Republic rebutting Perl’s commentary on the exhibit

Hmmm. Shall we file the recent debacle at the National Portrait Gallery under “Return of the Culture Wars,” “Homophobia,” “Christian Bashing,” “Media Circus,” “Politics As Usual,” or “Men Behaving Badly”? All of the above would be accurate. But “Men—and Women— Behaving Badly” seems most appropriate. Nearly every person or group who claimed a part in this sorry episode in American cultural history exacerbated what should have been a minor incident, or perhaps not an incident at all.

To recap, briefly: The gay-themed exhibition at the center of this fury, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,”