Openly gay Congressman Barney Frank is
speaking out on comments he made last week where he called
conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a “homophobe.”
Frank expanded on what he said to WBZ,
a Boston-based radio station.
“[Justice Scalia] makes it very clear
that he's angry, frankly, about the existence of gay people,” he
said, and supported the statement by citing Scalia's 2003 dissenting
opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court case that
struck down sodomy laws.
“If you read his opinion, he thinks
it's a good idea for two consenting adults who happen to be gay to be
locked up because he is so disapproving of gay people,” Frank said.
Scalia wrote he believed the court's
majority opinion ratified an “agenda promoted by some homosexual
activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium that has
traditionally attached to homosexual conduct.”
Commenters on conservative websites
have been railing against Frank since his original comments made news
Friday. Talking to 365gay.com,
Frank said the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act
(DOMA), the law that defines marriage as a heterosexual union for the
purposes of federal agencies and allows states to ignore legal gay
marriage, would need to be settled by the Supreme Court.
“At some point, it [DOMA] is going to
have to go to the United States Supreme Court.”
“I wouldn't want it to go to the
United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia
has too many votes on this current court,” he told Ross Palombo.
“Calling someone a 'homophobe' is
hate speech!,” wrote one commenter on the conservative CNS News.
“He [Frank] is the most disgusting
person on Capitol Hill ... Well, right after Obama,” wrote another.
Frank said he believed it is possible
to oppose gay rights and not be homophobic.
“While I support same-sex marriage, I
don't think if you're against it you're homophobic,” Frank said
yesterday. “I don't think Clarence Thomas is homophobic.”