OPINION
December 15, 2012
Responding to C.S. Pearce's Dec. 2 Op-Ed article, "The Christian case for gay marriage," reader Tony Hillbruner of San Gabriel wrote: "The Bible does not discuss gay marriage, but it condemns homosexual activity. In Romans 1:27, 'men ... were inflamed with lust for one another [and] committed indecent acts with other men.' 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 condemns a variety of 'wrongdoers,' including adulterers, male prostitutes and homosexuals. "Pearce cites Leviticus 20:13, but she focuses on its call to execute homosexuals and not on its core message: that a man who sleeps with a man has done something 'detestable.' While the punishment is foolishly excessive, this does not eliminate the biblical condemnation of homosexual behavior.
OPINION
December 13, 2012
In a 1996 Supreme Court decision protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote that Colorado voters had evidenced an unconstitutional "animus" toward homosexuality. Justice Antonin Scalia dissented, huffing: "I had thought that one could consider certain conduct reprehensible - murder, for example, or polygamy, or cruelty to animals - and could exhibit even 'animus' toward such conduct. " Seven years later, when the court overturned a Texas law that criminalized same-sex sodomy, Scalia again dissented, writing: "The Texas statute undeniably seeks to further the belief of its citizens that certain forms of sexual behavior are 'immoral and unacceptable' - the same interest furthered by criminal laws against fornication, bigamy, adultery, adult incest, bestiality, and obscenity.
NATIONAL
December 11, 2012 | By David G. Savage
Confronted by a gay student at Princeton University, Justice Antonin Scalia defended his past writings comparing laws against homosexuality to those prohibiting bestiality and murder, saying he was arguing that many laws are based on society's moral feelings. “If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder?” Scalia asked in response to a question. “Can we have it against other things? I don't apologize for the things I raise.” Scalia said he was not equating homosexual conduct with bestiality or murder.
NATIONAL
December 11, 2012 | By David G. Savage, Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Confronted by a gay student at Princeton University, Justice Antonin Scalia defended his writings comparing laws against homosexuality to those prohibiting bestiality and murder, saying he was arguing that many laws are based on society's moral feelings. "If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder?" Scalia asked in response to a question. "Can we have it against other things? I don't apologize for the things I raise. " Scalia said he was not equating homosexual conduct with bestiality or murder.
OPINION
November 16, 2012 | By Jonathan Zimmerman
In 1954, psychologist Benjamin Karpman wrote a prescient book about "sexual offenders" in the United States. Karpman focused especially on homosexuals who were drummed out of government jobs on the grounds that their sexual orientation made them security risks. If you were gay, the argument went, you were susceptible to blackmail by communist spies. But the real problem lay in the taboo on homosexuality, which paved the way for exactly the kind of extortion that the government feared.
SPORTS
October 11, 2012 | By Chuck Schilken
Brandon Spikes spends a lot of time on Twitter. The New England Patriots linebacker ought to know how it works by now. You tweet something, and it's not just your friends or followers or people with the same sense of humor as you that see it. Your words are out there on the World Wide Web (emphasis on the World Wide part). So when you post a joke on a sensitive topic, not everyone is going to get it. And it could become a pretty big deal. Spikes found that out after this tweet Wednesday: "I'm homophobic just like I'm arachnophobic.