Poodle | Ripples of Marriage Equality Act Quietly Felt in Santa Barbara
A History of Not Asking and Not Telling
IS SILENCE GOLDEN? The thing of it is that it’s not a thing at all. Or seems not to be. I can’t wrap my head around it. That’s probably a good thing. But I’m not really sure.
Dredging up all this second guessing is the fact that Santa Barbara’s newest police chief, Kelly Ann Gordon, is gay. She has a wife with whom she’s raised three impressive grown children. At official events, she and her wife show up and smile at one another with casual warmth. They exchange those absent-minded pecks that many married couples do. Likewise, the police department’s public information officer, Sgt. Ethan Ragsdale, has a husband. So it says in the official biography put out by the police department itself. But this being Santa Barbara, none of this is mentioned, let alone remarked upon, celebrated, or even vilified. That’s probably not surprising. Discretion has always been the better part of valor here.
There are certain subjects one just doesn’t talk about.
