Wayne Besen - Author, Activist, Columnist, Public Speaker

Monday, April 03, 2006

By Chris Lamparello

In a speech given at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland, Judge Antonin Scalia said, "It's absolutely clear that nobody ever thought when the Bill of Rights was adopted that it gave a right to homosexual conduct. Homosexual conduct was criminal for 200 years in every state. Easy question."

The judge is right that it's an easy question, but his insight ends there. Yes, "sodomy" was illegal when the constitution was written. But there's a glaring difference between then and now: sexual orientation was an unknown thing back then. Everyone was thought to be heterosexual.

Fast forward 200 years. (Yep, over 200 years has passed, Judge.) We now know that people who fall in love with members of their own sex exist as a class. This changes the entire debate, and dramatically so! But some people, Judge Scalia among them, don't want to acknowledge this change. The idea that the principles behind the constitution are as worthwhile as the constitution itself are lost on him.

In the Lawrence v. Texas case (why do these things always happen in Texas?) the police, with their flashlights blazing, went into the bedroom of a gay male couple. They ordered the men out of bed, told them to get dressed, handcuffed them and took them to jail.

That's what Judge Scalia's vision of America is. Is it any wonder that even George W. Bush passed him over for the job of Chief Justice? I shudder when I imagine the possibility that Scalia could have been born 50 years earlier. What would he have thought about segregation, for example? After all, 200 years ago, blacks were considered property, and in every state, too!

Judge Scalia took the unusual step of reading his Lawrence dissent from the bench. One of the more interesting things he said was that he "had nothing against homosexuals." I'm glad he cleared that one up. As for me, when it comes to homophobia, I know it when I see it.

12 Comments:

I love how conservatives always talk about taking our country back to 1789.

Let us do that for a moment, shall we?

1789: not everyone could vote - only rich, white men.

1789: African slavery legal (and prosperous)

1789: no infrastructure

1789: America loosely united

1789: western border at the Mississippi River

1789: the laughingstock of Europe

1789: unsophisticated military

The list goes on and on. Our country has grown and evolved over the years, which is why the founders left the Bill of Rights in some vague terms - the Constitution, as a living document, is up to interpretation. It grows and changes.

Justice Scalia should have learned this in Law 101.
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