Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia: Don’t paint me as anti-gay
Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, who has consistently dissented from pro-gay court rulings, has denied that he is “anti-gay”.
Justice Scalia is considered the most conservative of the nine Supreme Court justices – and has delivered blistering dissents from almost every ruling in favour of gay rights that the court has handed down.
When the court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act – which banned gay couples from marrying, he wrote: “In the majority’s telling, this story is black-and-white: Hate your neighbour or come along with us.
“The truth is more complicated. It is hard to admit that one’s political opponents are not monsters, especially in a struggle like this one, and the challenge in the end proves more than today’s Court can handle.
“The Court has cheated both sides, robbing the winners of an honest victory, and the losers of the peace that comes from a fair defeat. We owed both of them better. I dissent.”
However, he told the Washington Post that his dissents on the issue don’t mean he is actively anti-gay.
He said: “Don’t paint me as anti-gay or anti-abortion or anything else.
“All I’m doing on the Supreme Court is opining about who should decide: Is it a matter left to the people, or is it a matter of my responsibility as a justice of the Supreme Court?”
Of his close friend and frequent opponent Justce Ruth Bader Ginsburg – who has herself performed same-sex marriages – he said: “We’re never going to agree.”
