Two blog posts in a row on a matter that makes me uncomfortable …
Bear with me on this one.
Former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford was married to a woman for 48 years. Then his wife, Clare, died of leukemia in 1996. Sen. Wofford was despondent.
Then he met someone else five years later.
The someone else is Matthew Charlton. Wofford and Charlton fell in love. And so, quite soon, the two of them are going to get married.
Wofford is now 90 years of age. He served with distinction in World War II in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He and Clare produced three children.
I get that people of Wofford’sĀ generation who were gay perhaps were afraid to reveal their sexuality in that earlier time. I also believe Sen. Wofford’s statements about how deeply in love he was with Clare.
Then he has this new love interest enter his life. Is it a big deal that the new significant other is of the same gender? It’s not nearly as big a deal as it would have been a generation or two or three ago.
The truly weird part of this story to my way of thinking is that Matthew Charlton is now 40 years old. He is five decades younger than Sen. Wofford.
Wofford said he never attached the terms “gay” or “straight” to his sexual orientation.
He said he’s now just happy to have found love once again. That it happens to be with a man must be just, well, the way it is.
A lot of us out here in the peanut gallery who are watching this latest chapter in the life of a one-time public manĀ are left to wonder: What in the world is up with that huge age difference?