"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Today's Must-Read: It's About More than Roe v. Wade

Interesting piece by Michelangelo Signorile on the implications of Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court for the religious right's agenda:

With Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings coming up, it’s important to underscore that some anti-LGBTQ leaders appear to be going for the brass ring, far beyond just dismantling marriage equality. They’re signaling they want to see the Supreme Court allow states to once again ban sodomy.

Kavanaugh, like Neil Gorsuch and the late Antonin Scalia, is a constitutional "originalist," which means that he thinks they Constitution should be interpreted from an eighteenth-century mindset. (They don't say it that way, of course, but that's what it amounts to.) The Founders, as it happens, were a lot more savvy about the processes of history and human society than contemporary "conservatives": they knew damned well that time passes, attitudes change, and the law has to reflect that. As Justice Anthony Kennedy put it, the Founders “knew times can blind us to certain truths, and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress." The goal of the hard-line "Christians" in this country, at least as regards privacy and the rights of LGBT citizens and women, is to put Tony Perkins in your bedroom, watching everything you do.

Via Towleroad.

Footnote: From Digby, this survey on public opinion on Roe v. Wade, another decision the "religious" right wants to demolish:


Historically, the Supreme Court has paid attention to public opinion -- it's the way they have of gauging changing attitudes. We'll see if that still holds.

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