Art Pottery, Politics and Food

Thursday, June 26, 2003

Thousands and thousands of gay men and women across America can proudly take quiet credit for today’s Supreme Court decision overturning the Texas anti-Sodomy law in the case Lawrence vs Texas.
Link to Adobe version of Decision
This essentially leaderless movement of outcasts, intent upon stopping old abusive patterns through new institutions of family, has pioneered, by quiet example, a major shift in United States law.
I was, perhaps foolishly, hoping our ridiculous Chief Justice might select to ease his historical burden and pay tribute to friends and neighbors by joining with the majority. But, true to his reputation as a noodler, he joined cabal-mates Thomas and Scalia in an ugly dissent that not only trashes homosexuals but that arch bug-a-boo of the true Right, lawyers:

Today’s opinion is the product of a Court, which is the product of a law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct…It is clear from this that the Court has taken sides in the culture war…So imbued is the Court with the law profession’s anti-anti-homosexual culture, that it is seemingly unaware that the attitudes of that culture are not obviously “mainstream”…

Apparently not catholic in his tastes, Mr. Scalia’s dissent hinges upon the belief that “proscriptions against that conduct have ancient roots”. And, so they do. But, oddly, ancient traditions didn’t seem to matter so awfully much to our troika of anti-iconoclasts after the contested Presidential election of 2000. Some ancient roots, I guess, are better than others.

Bad neighbor

Today’s momentous ruling reminds me of a February 12th Lloyd Grove column in the Washington Post:

We were intrigued by a story in the upcoming issue of the Advocate concerning Rehnquist's friendship with actor Richard Maloy and artist Tucker Bobst, his former neighbors in Arlington. Chris Bull writes: "Bobst and Maloy, who recently celebrated their 55th anniversary as a couple, quickly befriended Rehnquist and his wife, Nan [in 1986]. The couples . . . exchanged batches of holiday cookies and looked out for one another. One day while Rehnquist was in court, Maloy noticed that the chief justice had left his car unlocked and the lights on . . . Maloy described the note he left on Rehnquist's car: 'There've been car thefts in the area. Hope to hell you have the keys 'cause I've locked it and turned off the lights. Best mend your ways! Signed, Your neighbors, Sherlock and Watson.'
"A few months later, Maloy and Bobst put their home up for sale. 'The day I put the . . . sale sign out, [Rehnquist] came over, threw his coat over the sign, and said, 'You can't move. Who's going to tell me my car's unlocked and the lights are on, and to mend my ways?' "
Maloy told the magazine: "We hoped that by getting to know us, he would understand a little better the real-life implications of his opinions. He certainly didn't want the police banging on our door, and neither did we."

Photo: Doug Mills-AP

- posted by Sean @ 4:49 PM

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