Antonin Scalia Again Proves He's a Bigoted Ass

Once again flouting judicial propriety Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had a bur up his ass and was whining that the Supreme Court should not be deciding "moral issues" where there is no “scientifically demonstrable right answer.”   As one might expect, homosexuality and gay rights fall within this category in Scalia's bigoted mind.  Of course, he doesn't say who should make such decisions, although given his slavish obedience to the Catholic Church one must assume he'd leave it to the churches and religious charlatans at outfits like Family Research Council to rule on the rights of minorities.  He also ignores the reality that outside of organizations funded by far right religious groups, there is a scientifically right answer on gays.  Homosexuality is NORMAL, unchangeable, and many of the leading medical and mental health organizations support gay marriage rights.  With Scalia, his personal beliefs and Medieval religious views always trump all else.  He is one of the "mullahs" that he complains about but seemingly has failed to take a good look at himself in the mirror.  He really needs to be removed from the Supreme Court.  Here are highlights from the Charlotte Observer:

ASHEVILLE With a potentially ground-breaking decision on gay marriage expected next week, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Friday morning that he and other judges should stop setting moral standards concerning homosexuality and other issues.  Why?  We aren’t qualified, Scalia said.

In a speech titled “Mullahs of the West: Judges as Moral Arbiters,” the outspoken and conservative jurist told the N.C. Bar Association that constitutional law is threatened by a growing belief in the “judge moralist.” In that role, judges are bestowed with special expertise to determine right and wrong in such matters as abortion, doctor-assisted suicide, the death penalty and same-sex marriage.

During his speech, Scalia acknowledged that his opinion is not universally shared. Many legal scholars and judges – including some of his colleagues on the Supreme Court – believe in a “living Constitution” that reflects “evolving standards of decency.” This also has given rise to what Scalia decried as a sprawling application of the provisions of human rights and equal protection under the law.

In response to a question, he said he does not ascribe to a Constitution locked away from change. The law must evolve to deal with new phenomena, he said, but it should do so while remaining firmly moored in its founding principles. And most moral issues, he added, don’t qualify as new.

One of those moral debates – gay marriage – is now before the high court. The justices are expected to rule next week on two same-sex cases. One involves the federal Defense of Marriage Act; the other, California’s Proposition 8. Both oppose gay marriage.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/06/21/4121621/nc-lawyers-listen-as-justice-scalia.html#storylink=cpy

[D]uring his half-hour speech at the Grove Park Inn on Friday, the 77-year-old frequently listed homosexuality among the issues that should be decided by the public and not unelected judges.

His comments during the March oral arguments for the same-sex marriage cases followed a similar bent. “When did it become unconstitutional to exclude homosexual couples from marriage?” he asked.

His earlier statements about the legal rights of gay couples are even more outspoken. During an October speech to the American Enterprise Institute, Scalia described the death penalty, abortion and “homosexual sodomy” as “easy” constitutional issues. “Homosexual sodomy? Come on. For 200 years it was criminal in every state.”

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/06/21/4121621/nc-lawyers-listen-as-justice-scalia.html#storylink=cpy

Apparently, no one reminded Scalia that slavery was legal for thousands of years.  A long running wrong doesn't somehow become right simply through a long period of abuse of others.  Scalia is nothing short of a flaming asshole in my view.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/06/21/4121621/nc-lawyers-listen-as-justice-scalia.html#storylink=cpy

New Task Forces to Focus on LGBT Youth

As anyone not living under a stone must know, suicide is a major problem for LGBT teens and youth who all too often are targeted for bullying by peers and who often witness the endless denigration of LGBT individuals by Christianist hate merchants and professional Christians. The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention announced yesterday that it is creating a new task force to handle suicide prevention efforts among LGBT youths. Additional task forces are also being created to work with American Indians/Alaska Natives and military service members and veterans since these two groups also experience increased levels of suicide. As I have advocated before, besides helping gay teens and youths, more must be done to stigmatize and marginalize the disseminators of religious based hatred that lends respectability to gay bashing and anti-gay bullying. These false Christians need to be held accountable for the blood on their hands. Here are highlights from the The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention's press release:
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The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention today added three new task forces to address suicide prevention efforts within high-risk populations: American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/AN); youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT); and military service members and veterans.
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Studies from organizations such as the Suicide Prevention Resource Center report that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are from 1.5 to seven times more likely to report having attempted suicide than their non-LGBT peers, while transgender youth are believed to have higher rates of suicidal behavior as well. Co-leading the LGBT Youth Task Force are Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary, Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, U.S. Department of Education, and Charles Robbins, Executive Director of The Trevor Project, the leading national organization focused on crisis and suicide prevention efforts among LGBT youth.
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"This task force will bring together the best minds in the country to combat suicide and make sure that every LGBT youth has the opportunity to grow up in a supportive, accepting community and to enter adulthood safely," Robbins said.
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The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, a public-private partnership, provides an operating structure to catalyze planning, execution and accountability for advancing the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP). From this alliance will grow advancements for practitioners, policymakers, service providers, communities, families, agencies, and other partners that play a vital role in reducing suicides in America.
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No one should ever feel that suicide is their best option. I've been there myself twice and there truly needs to be more accountability and repercussions placed on judges, politicians, religious leaders and others that use anti-gay bigotry to aggrandize their own egos or for political and/or financial gain.

Lillian McEwen Breaks Her Silence: Justice Clarence Thomas Obsessed with Pornography

As readers have probably figured out, I am no fan of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who, in my opinion, should never have been appointed to the Supreme Court because of his lack of competence and his inability to separate his own claimed religious views from his rulings. Likewise, I find his wife's blatant political activities and financial benefits from anonymous political action donors bordering on shocking - especially given the tradition of judicial spouses avoiding anything that smacks of political partisanship much less things that give the appearance of impropriety. (Two of my former law partners are federal judges, so I know first hand what normal judicial spouse conduct looks like).

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Apparently, Virginia Thomas like many on the far right sees herself as exempt from the rules that govern others. Recently, she even had the audacity to call Anita Hill and ask that Hill bury the hatchet by apologizing to Thomas' husband. Well, now that brazen behavior seems to be biting both Thomas in the ass. Because of Thomas' behavior, Lilian McEwen, a woman well acquainted with Clarence Thomas has loudly said what she was afraid to say 19 years ago about Thomas. In effect, she substantiates Hill's testimony and confirms that Clarence Thomas is a very seamy and warped man. Pay backs can surely be Hell. If Thomas had any integrity, he'd resign from the Court. But, of course he doesn't and will not. Here are highlights from the Washington Post:
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When Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his explosive 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Thomas vehemently denied the allegations and his handlers cited his steady relationship with another woman in an effort to deflect Hill's allegations. Lillian McEwen was that woman.
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She was never asked to testify, as then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), who headed the committee, limited witnesses to women who had a "professional relationship" with Thomas.
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Now, she says that Thomas often said inappropriate things about women he met at work -- and that she could have added her voice to the others, but didn't. . . . . She did not want to do anything to harm her career, she added. Plus, she realized, "I don't look good in this."
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News broke that the justice's wife, Virginia Thomas, left a voice mail on Hill's office phone at Brandeis University, seeking an apology -- a request that Hill declined in a statement. After that, McEwen changed her mind and decided to talk about her relationship with Thomas.
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To McEwen, Hill's allegations that Thomas had pressed her for dates and made lurid sexual references rang familiar. . . . . He was obsessed with porn," she said of Thomas, who is now 63. "He would talk about what he had seen in magazines and films, if there was something worth noting."
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According to McEwen, Thomas would also tell her about women he encountered at work. He was partial to women with large breasts, she said. In an instance at work, Thomas was so impressed that he asked one woman her bra size, McEwen recalled him telling her.
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[S]he says, "I know Clarence would not be happy with me." "I have no hostility toward him," McEwen said. "It is just that he has manufactured a different reality over time. That's the problem that he has."

Spain's Supreme Court Increases Suspension for Homophobic Judge

Wow!! While on the topic of homophobia in the legal profession, one best not forget the rampant homophobia among judges who allow their personal religious beliefs to lead them to inequitable if not downright horrific treatment of LGBT Litigants. If the Virginia Supreme Court were to follow the example of Spain's highest court, many courts in Virginia - including the majority in Norfolk - might well be without judges. Kudos to Spain's Supreme Court for hitting a homophobic judge (pictured at left) with a 10 year suspension for his inappropriate discrimination against an LGBT litigant. Once again, Spain is ahead of the USA in its treatment of its LGBT citizens. Here are some story highlights:

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The Murcia judge who was suspended by the Murcia High Court for maliciously delaying the adoption by a lesbian woman of her partner’s child has had his appeal against the court’s turned down by Spain’s highest court.
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The Supreme Court has in fact decided to increase more than four-fold the magistrate’s original suspension of two years, three months and one day: the length of his ban has now gone up to 10 years.
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The sentence prohibiting Fernando Ferrín Calamita from his profession for 10 years has also ordered him to pay a fine of 720 €, and has confirmed 6,000 € in compensation to the woman who had applied to adopt the child.
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Judge Calamita was originally suspended for 2 years for maliciously delaying a lesbian adoption.
Honestly, moving to Spain is looking better and better all the time.

Random Thoughts on Life Out of the Closet and Therapy

While I nervously await updated election results on Question 1 in Maine and results from Washington State and the Referendum 71 effort to repeal same sex domestic partnership rights, I figured it was a good time to reflect on my personal saga and further update readers after a very serious meltdown back in late September that resulted in a TDO - something I never want to experience again. As I mentioned over the weekend, I've been on new meds for roughly a month and I saw my new therapist and psychiatrist yesterday and today. I believe that things are moving in a positive direction. As I have stated before, I believe that therapy is a must for anyone making the transition from the closet - or undergoing the consequences of homophobic judges who continue to believe the discredited "choice myth" disseminated by anti-gay Christianist organizations.

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When it comes to finding the right providers and/or coming to feel comfortable with new providers, it is important to remember that achieving a new comfort zone does not happen over night. And, if you do not feel the right fit with providers, it is critical that you try someone else. If it doesn't feel right, do not do it. That said, I think I am going to be happy with the new therapist and psychiatrist both of whom are not locals and come from much more enlightened and liberal areas. Indeed, both are still suffering culture shock and are shocked by the open racism and homophobia in this area. While my past providers have been male and it is a bit of an adjustment to be working with women - not that gay guys and straight women do not work well together.

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Bottom line, coming out in mid-life is not easy - not that coming out is ever truly easy in our current society - and it is important to not expect the process/transition to happen over night. One also needs to accept the fact that there may/will be set backs from time to time. To readers in situations comparable to my own, my message to you is to "hang in there." As for bouts of depression, a reader in California sent me an e-mail that I found very profound. Here are highlights:

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A really interesting insight came in my years of counseling. This doctor talked about "the dignity of depression." I could hardly believe my ears, and asked him about it many times. He suggested that a person who can feel deep depression (pain) also has the capacity to feel great joy. The depression is a measure of passion, and passion is good! If you can have negative passion, you can also have positive passion. On the other hand, some people who seem to be "okay" really have very little passion, either way. They don't feel deeply sad or very, very happy... they just go along, with a narrow range of feeling. He spoke about the dignity of having great passion. I could hardly believe him, but I've come to know it's true.

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I can honestly say that if the choice is between going through life semi-numb emotionally or having depression as well as great passion, I will take passion any day.

Project to Block Appointment/Re-Appointment of Anti-Gay Judges In Virginia

Virginia is one of a small number of states where state court judges are appointed by the General Assembly. Unlike federal judges where appointments are lifetime, Virginia judges come up for reappointment. Given the current rampant homophobia in the Virginia judiciary it seems time to begin a project where dossiers can be assembled on judges that have displayed homophobia and refused to abide by the Virginia Canons of Judicial Conduct and submitted to gay friendly members of the General Assembly as ammunition for opposing the reappointment of such judges. Coupled with this would be an effort to make sure that complaints are filed with the Virginia Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission to further document the behavior of judges. While the Commission seems generally worthless from my experience, still I suspect it must report the number of complaints received against any particular judge up for reappointment.

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To start this project, I would like to hear from anyone who would like to get involved and it will also be necessary to come up with forms and other documentation so that we could have consistent information, etc. I am also going to make some contacts with the ACLU, Equality Virginia, and other LGBT rights related organizations to see if (1) we can have a coordinated effort state wide on this front and (2) assemble a list of gay friendly allies in the General Assembly that would be well positioned to bring up a judge's homophobic conduct and failure to abide by the Canons of Judicial Conduct.

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Obviously, the other thing that will be needed is for LGBT Virginians who have been mistreated in court by biased members of the judiciary to take the time to contact this new organization and share their story so that a file can be built up on each homophobic judge. It will take some time to get this project off the ground, but in time it can hopefully (a) assist in blocking reappointment of bigoted judges and (b) become a deterrent to homophobic judges by its mere existence.

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Let me know your thoughts and whether you would like to get involved (e-mail me a michaelinnorfolk@gmail.com). Also, be thinking of a name for the new organization. So much injustice is done to LGBT litigants virtually daily by anti-gay judges and it is time that we devise a mechanism to strike back and work to have these judges removed from office and/or not reappointed.

Weekend Reflections, Apology, and Amazing "Martha"

So far the weekend has been a much needed escape to a different place and scene. Last week was NOT a good week and on Tuesday I again contemplated a permanent solution to my current financial and post divorce wars nightmares, upsetting the boyfriend, my youngest daughter, my family and my staff as I careened out of control. In fact, my office manager called the police and had both the Norfolk and Hampton police departments looking for me. Two Hampton police cruisers rolled up moments after I got to the house. I was in total meltdown. At times I wonder whether the anti-depressant meds make things better or worse.

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In any event, so far this weekend has given me some much needed perspective - which hopefully will last past my return to Hampton Roads. Sometimes it is all to easy to get caught up in the sh*t of life and forget that there is a huge world out there and that one's current existence is not the end of all possibilities. Of course, being in New York City on the anniversary of 9-11 and staying in the West Village which is worlds away from the backwardness and provincial mindset of Tidewater Virginia where LGBT citizens have zero legal protections from discrimination and far too many professional Christians make a lucrative livelihood off of marketing homophobia and anti-gay prejudice, does make one think. I don't know if I could live in New York City full time - especially in the winter - but I can safely say that except for the boyfriend's successful business, I would seriously consider leaving Virginia without a second thought.

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On Tuesday before I was reined back under control by the boyfriend and two wonderfully nice and sensitive Hampton police officers, I had posted two very out of control posts on this blog. I took the posts down within a few hours, but should never have posted them perhaps in the first place. Why did I do it? Anger and pain. And frustration at a legal system that allows gays to be brutalized by gay bashing attorneys and crucified by homophobic judges and where the State Bar and Judicial Review Commission do nothing to prevent such actions even though they are prohibited by the Canons of Judicial Conduct and the Code of Professional Responsibility. I guess I just wanted t give back some of the brutality I have received repeatedly. I hurt some people. As they have hurt me. I so much want all of the nastiness to be over.

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On a different note, I wanted to tell our friend Douglas (who is letting us use his apartment) that the boyfriend, a/k/a "Martha Stewart" has now added plumbing to his ever expanding repertoire. The formerly slow draining bath tub (which decided to not drain at all) is now freely flowing again after Martha's assault on it with a snake from a local hardware store - our gift to you - and a jug of Drano.

Divorce Wars - Another Battle and the Role of Counsel

I will not be posting much on Friday - this post was written Thursday evening - since I have yet another post-divorce hearing where the former wife will seek to further harass me and make me produce another ream of financial information that documents the fact that I do not have the funds currently to pay her what she demands. Accepting financial reality was not a strong suit on her part during our marriage and apparently little has changed. Increasingly, however, I believe a significant source of the ongoing legal circus is the fault of her latest attorney who, in my opinion is milking the ex-wife for all she can in terms of fees and taking advantage of the ex-wife's apparent thirst for vengeance. An ethical attorney would not take matters aimed solely at harassment and unnecessary litigation just to make more in fees.

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I have been in the legal profession for over 32 years and in my opinion, the former wife's attorney is one of the most ethically challenged I have encountered. Based on her bar card number, she's relatively new to the profession and she lacks years of experience. Moreover, again in my opinion, she has no qualms lying to judges and misrepresenting facts or resorting to gay bashing - the reason why I now have a court reporter now at every hearing to keep her and homophobic judges more honest. She even seems to delight in making gratuitous snide comments and remarks aimed at me or my attorney - out of the ear shot of the judges, of course.

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It has been my experience - at least among the corporate and commercial law bar - that one's word and reputation for ethical conduct as an attorneys are as valuable as gold. Trust worthy attorneys can agree on issues and matters can be more expeditiously resolved without needless nastiness and litigation. In fact, I once had a large multi-million dollar deal close and fund on my mere verbal assurance that I would issue a particular opinion post closing that the tax-credit purchaser requested. Honesty and above board conduct are invaluable in working with other attorneys - something that the ex-wife's attorney has not, in my opinion yet learned. Perhaps she never will. The reality is that if one is labeled a liar and a snake the word gets out and that attorney's clients will ultimately suffer in the form of lost compromises and increased fees and costs.

Should I Write a Book?

I have been humbled by the messages I have received from readers in response to my early morning post about my thoughts of suicide. You all are so sweet and supportive. I have talked at length with the boyfriend - who is none too happy with me - and a number of other folks who have encouraged me to channel my energy in a positive manner. The consensus seems to be that I should write a "tell all" book about my years in the closet growing up, my coming out journey, and the injustices regularly encountered by gays and lesbians who come out after years of marriage.

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Since I first began this blog as a way to gather material for a book that my therapist believed I should write, it would make sense and fulfill that initial plan. Moreover, while the early posts give much detail, they never revealed everything - in part because I was technically still married and the divorce case still pending. Since the ex-wife has decided to go on a scorched earth style war against me, it seems only fair that previously unrevealed details about how I came to be married and other issues would now deserve full disclosure. Since truth is an absolute defense to a libel suit as is merely stating one's opinion (e.g., naming homophobic judges by name, GOP candidates who covered up for closeted gays in the Party), some might be most upset with what I might reveal, but they would have no basis for a lawsuit against me. Indeed, a lawsuit would only guarantee more publicity.

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Obviously, the book would also talk about the world of gay blogging and some of the amazing people that I have met (e.g., Mike Rogers, Pam Spaulding, Waymon Hudson, Jeremy Hooper, among others). Let me have your thoughts and I will keep you updated on where I am going with this.