On the front page of Tuesday’s New York Times, reporter Michael Powell demonstrated that the newly appointed Catholic Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, has charm that can soften even a secular liberal newspaper. Powell called Dolan ”a genial enforcer of Rome’s ever more conservative writ.” He manages the church’s hard line: “firm opposition to abortion, birth control, divorce, gay marriage, and any crack in the wall of priestly celibacy.” Powell easily described Dolan as “conservative,” but his abortion-advocating or church-modernizing opponents in the story drew no label.

Now can anyone imagine words like “enforcer” being used on the libertine side of the cultural clash? When the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation names a new leader, are they going to be “enforcers” of “ever more liberal” orthodoxy? You can’t argue GLAAD doesn’t act like an enforcer. Take Isaiah Washington, who dropped the wrong F-bomb on the set of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and was ultimately fired after a GLAAD-pleasing sackcloth-and-ashes “treatment plan.” Here’s that same New York Times on January 25, 2007, obediently using PC terminology while Washington is punished:

The announcement of Mr. Washington’s treatment plan follows by two days his meeting with leaders of two gay-rights organizations. One, Neil G. Giuliano, president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said after the meeting that Mr. Washington had acknowledged that his statements had caused harm and that he ”understands that he is going to be judged by more than just his apology.”

Look no further than the Oscar ceremonies for proof of GLAAD’S inherent enforcer function: the GLAAD Blog attempted to count how many stars of the movie Milk wore the strenuously recommended white knot on their tux signifying support for gay marriage.