Does Antonin Scalia hate gays?
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has been widely criticized for referring in a recent interview to “that homophobe Antonin Scalia,” an injudicious exercise in name-calling that obscures Frank’s larger and more valid point: that the opinions of the tart-tongued Supreme Court justice leave little doubt of his utter lack of sympathy for gays and lesbians. “Homophobia” used to mean “fear of homosexuality,” but it’s now used to describe any overt hostility toward gays. Scalia’s defenders argue that he has never actually denounced homosexuality or expressed such hostility. In fact, in his dissent in a 1996 decision striking down an anti-gay referendum in Colorado, Scalia wrote: “Let me be clear that I have nothing against homosexuals, or any other group, promoting their agenda through normal democratic means.” Scalia says he objects to pro-gay-rights decisions for the reasons he rejects Roe vs. Wade: His colleagues are legislating from the bench. But Frank thinks there is more to Scalia’s attitud
