The Closet’s Crystal Curtain
A satirical op-ed with receipts, metaphors, and a fuse you can light in public I. The chandelier scene Crystal light spills across a private D.C. club where cabinet officials trade glances over the string section. The dress code is “power with a smile.” At one end of the room, a policy memo moves like a shadow through the hands of staffers. It outlines cuts, restrictions, and a new standard of “biological truth.” The drag performers who used to work these rooms are off the invite list. The door staff do not say why. The room contains a contradiction polished to a mirror shine. It is stocked with what the Style pages recently christened the administration’s A-Gays —close-crop hair, windowpane suits, and a studied allergy to the word “queer.” They are openly gay, culturally fluent, and perfectly at ease in a government that is busy redrafting the terms of gender and public life. Their presence is the chandelier: dazzling, distracting, and heavy enough to crush you if it falls....
