➤ PROUD BOYS, from p.16
2017 when, according to Gothamist,
McInnes was giving a speech
at New York University when members
of the Proud Boys wound up
fi ghting protesters and attacking
journalists. The group even encouraged
its members to go after
the “faggots wearing black that
won’t let us in.”
The group also returned to New
York City in 2018 when McInnes,
who left the group that year, delivered
remarks at the Metropolitan
Republican Club in Manhattan
and Proud Boys members again
engaged in altercations with protesters.
McInnes wrote multiple pieces
for “Thought Catalog” that were
not only insensitive but also laced
with overt misogyny, transphobia,
and homophobia. In one extremely
transphobic piece entitled
“Transphobia is Perfectly Natural,”
he made light of gender-affi rming
care, deliberately misgendered
transgender folks, and labeled
trans individuals as “mentally ill”
people who “need help.” Furthermore,
he criticized those who respect
pronouns.
Among his other pieces included
one entitled “Having Kids Turns
You Into a Complete Fag.” McInnes
has also used homophobic slurs
in pieces he wrote for VICE, Taki’s
Levi Lepage, a member of Proud Boys, participates in a rally supporting President Donald Trump in
Gresham, Oregon, on September 19.
Magazine, and in his own book,
which included an anti-gay slur in
one of the chapter’s titles.
Trump, not surprisingly, also
shares an anti-LGBTQ history of
his own on a number of fronts,
including his ban on transgender
service members from the military,
his administration’s refusal to recognize
the citizenship of children
whose same-sex parents are bi-national,
and his decision to reverse
Obama-era guidance to schools
REUTERS/ SHANNON STAPLETON
stipulating that transgender students
should be able to use the
bathroom that corresponds with
their gender identity. His administration
has also moved to strip
trans folks of healthcare protections
and worked to give adoption
agencies the right to deny prospective
same-sex parents.
Trump’s refusal to criticize the
Proud Boys resembled a moment
in August of 2017 when he reacted
to a white supremacist rally in
Charlottesville, Virginia, by saying
there were “very fi ne people on
both sides” and again attempting
to shift blame on others by saying
“What about the ‘alt-left’ that came
charging…”
Two years later, Trump posted a
tweet saying four women in Congress
should “go back and help fi x
the totally broken and crime infested
places from which they came.”
Following Trump’s antics during
the debate, the non-partisan
Commission on Presidential Debates
announced on September 30
that “additional structure” would
be needed in future debates and
forums. The commission added
that it will be “carefully considering
the changes that it will adopt
and will announce those measures
shortly.”
It took two full days — and an
appearance in the friendly confi
nes of Sean Hannity’s Fox TV
show — for the president to fi nally
explicitly disacow the Proud Boys.
As Gay City News goes to presson
on the evening of October 7,
Vice President Mike Pence and
California Senator Kamala Harris
are squaring off at the University
of Utah.
Trump, meanwhile, though still
“not out of the woods” from his
COVID infection, has vowed to
meet Biden again in Miami on October
15.
➤ THOMAS & ALITO, from p.4
ments, statements she has made
over the years essentially indicate
she too would be sympathetic to
the Catholic agency. (She has also
said that Obergefell is misunderstood
as a decision about marriage
equality rather than “who gets to
decide” — the courts or the legislative
branch of the government.
Shortly after the 2015 ruling, she
signed an open letter from Catholic
women arguing that “marriage
and family founded on the indissoluble
commitment of a man and
a woman — provide a sure guide
to the Christian life, promote women’s
fl ourishing, and serve to protect
the poor and most vulnerable
among us.”)
That means that the position of
the city of Philadelphia could only
be upheld if it is able to win over two
of three of the remaining conservatives
— Roberts, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh.
Roberts raised religious
liberty concerns in his Obergefell
dissent and he joined Alito’s majority
in the startling 2014 Hobby
Lobby case that allowed that company
to assert a religious objection
to complying with the contraceptive
coverage requirement of the
Affordable Care Act. Still, Roberts’
specifi c thinking on the Philadelphia
case is not yet clear.
Nor are the views of either Gorsuch
and Kavanaugh.
It’s worth noting that, in 2017,
Gorsuch, joined by Thomas and
Alito, dissented from a ruling that
the state of Arkansas’ refusal to
apply the legal presumption that
the spouse of a birth mother is the
parent of that mother’s child violated
the 14th Amendment as construed
in Obergefell.
That dissent suggested that
Gorsuch was unconvinced about
the breadth of the 2015 marriage
equality ruling, which certainly
raises a concern.
Still, it’s unclear whether Obergefell
would in fact make an appropriate
vehicle for settling the religious
exemption issue. Davis, the
Kentucky county clerk, went about
as far as anyone has in making a
religious exemption claim — arguing
she could neglect her offi cial
duties based on her faith. That
may not be a winning argument
for fi ve justices.
The Philadelphia nondiscrimination
policy or a challenge in a
Title VII case seems a more likely
avenue for this issue to be addressed.
In that context, it’s worth
noting that cases like Masterpiece
Cakeshop — though popularly described
as “gay marriage” cases —
have in fact been disputes about
nondiscrimination requirements of
the law, not about Obergefell.
So, in the end, Thomas and Alito
this week might in fact be accomplishing
little more than letting off
some of their ever-bilious steam.
At the same time, it would be a
missed opportunity for Democrats
in the Senate if they fail to press
Barrett on Thomas’ statement
should hearings be held on her
nomination.
The ACLU’s Strangio was far
from the only LGBTQ legal advocate
raising the alarm about the
Thomas statement.
Kevin Jennings, the CEO of
Lambda Legal, in a written statement,
said, “The nightmare of a
hostile Supreme Court majority
is already here. The confi rmation
hearings for Judge Amy Coney
Barrett haven’t even started yet
and Justices Thomas and Alito are
already creating a laundry list of
cases they want to overturn. And
unsurprisingly, marriage equality
is fi rst on the chopping block.
Confi rming Judge Barrett would
be the fi nal puzzle piece they need
in order to make it happen.”
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