Photo of Kagan playing softball strikes out with gays
Softball, that friendly, fun game many Americans grow up playing, suddenly finds itself entangled in a hardball debate about sexual orientation, editorial judgment and the future of the Supreme Court.
It all stems from speculation in the media that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is a lesbian.
Sparking the interest was a nearly two-decades-old picture of Kagan playing softball on the front page of Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal. That quickly morphed into an online debate about whether the paper used the photo to make a point – essentially, that if she plays softball, she must be gay.
The newspaper denies the photo was used for any such purpose.
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Nevertheless, the president of the International Softball Federation, Don Porter, felt the need to weigh in.
Porter insists softball is for everyone, regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation.
“The media has chosen to try to put a label on athletes who play this sport,” he said. “I’ve heard more about softball that way in one week than I did about our sport, period, in one year during” the campaign to get softball back in the Olympics.
“While it’s good to hear our sport mentioned in the major media during the past few days, it has been more in a negative sense than positive. …” he said.
Those who play and coach the game were equally dismayed.
“We’ve come so far,” said Jessica Mendoza, a two-time Olympian and president of the Women’s Sports Foundation, “and to have even one person think that showing a photo would correlate with someone’s orientation, I want to yell out and say, ‘Where have you been? Look around.’”
But stereotypes run deep. Those about female athletes go back at least to the days when a girl with some athletic promise immediately got the label “tomboy,” because, for instance, she could throw a baseball far. Or, in other words, because she didn’t “throw like a girl.”
The landmark Title IX legislation, passed in 1972, brought about more opportunities and gradually, girls and women playing sports in college, high schools and recreational leagues became more accepted.
“It is shocking, that here we are in the 21st century and something like this is being brought up,” two-time Olympian Jennie Finch said.
Her former teammate, Stacey Nuveman, agrees.
“In the sporting community, having gay and lesbian players on teams is more accepted and a known entity than it once was,” she said. “But it’s still something that, in the general landscape of things, we have a long way to go.”
[1] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-elena-kagan-softball-top.jpg
Kagan heads back to the Hill for whirlwind visits
(Washington) Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan returned to Capitol Hill Thursday to meet with senators who are key to her confirmation.
The solicitor general, preparing for meetings with Republicans and Democrats, including one who has opposed her in the past, said she’s beginning to get accustomed to the delicate ritual of closely watched courtesy calls she must make in the run-up to her summer confirmation hearings.
Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, her first visit of the day, asked Kagan whether she’s “getting used to this little routine.”
“Just barely,” Kagan responded with a smile.
Kagan, 50, called on eight senators Wednesday and plans meetings with another seven today. That includes one former foe, Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., who as a Republican voted last year against confirming her to her current post.
Kerry said he was “very proud” of Kagan, adding that she has “quite a road yet to travel.”
In closed-door meetings, Kagan has assured senators that she’s up to the job of being a justice, seeking to counter GOP criticism of her lack of experience as a judge or courtroom litigator. President Barack Obama tapped Kagan this week to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.
Kagan has gotten off to a fast start on Capitol Hill. Shuttling from office to office Wednesday, she stayed quiet in public but fielded questions in private about her resume, opinions and legal philosophy.
Kagan, a former Harvard Law School dean, defended herself against Republican doubts about her fitness to be a fair justice. She said she’d be “faithful to the law,” according to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who said he asked her whether she could be impartial given that she’s identified with “liberal” positions and has clerked for two judges he called “activist.”
Sessions, the top Republican on the Judiciary panel that will hold Kagan’s confirmation hearings, said he’d do his best to give her a “fair” hearing, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the committee chairman, said he’d guarantee a process where senators could ask “all relevant questions.”
Republicans are questioning whether Kagan can be impartial in light of her political views and current position on Obama’s team. And they have harshly criticized her decision while at Harvard to bar military recruiters from campus because she disagreed with the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay soldiers.
GOP senators say they want to see documents from her time serving in Bill Clinton’s White House to get a better understanding of her fitness for the Supreme Court.
“I think all the documents that are producible should be produced,” Sessions said. “The American people are entitled to know what kind of positions she took, and what kind of issues she was involved with during her past public service.”
Democrats praise Kagan as a highly qualified, sharp legal mind who will bring an important perspective from outside the federal bench to the job of justice.
“She brings to this court that kind of intellect and those values that can make a positive difference for the future of the court,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.
WH: No Supreme Court pick this week
(Washington) The White House says President Barack Obama won’t announce a Supreme Court nominee this week.
That pushes the timeline for Obama to announce his choice to succeed Justice John Paul Stevens into May.
Obama said last week that he would make a nomination in the next couple of weeks.
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said at his regular briefing Monday that it won’t be this week.
Tuesday Watercooler: Supreme Court divided on discrimination
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This morning’s discussion in the Supreme Court kinda scares me … a lot. The case, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, is a fight over the right to discriminate, and, of course, money.
“Hastings College of Law, which is part of the University of California, has a general policy barring student groups that receive official recognition and university funding from discriminating,” the American Civil Liberties Union [2] explains. “The Christian Legal Society is a student club that requires its members to sign a Statement of Faith that, among other things, rejects homosexuality as inconsistent with Christian values. CLS is ineligible for official recognition and university funding at Hastings because of its membership requirement, although it is otherwise free to meet on campus.”
Essentially, no gays equals no money. That math seems simple, right?
Now, here’s the scary, though somewhat ironic, part: The right-leaning justices seem to think this is discrimination.
“It is so weird to require the campus Republican club to admit Democrats,” Justice Antonin Scalia said, The Republic reported [3]. “To require the Christian society to allow atheists not just to join, but to conduct Bible classes, that’s crazy.”
Let’s break this down: Essentially, it’s discrimination not to allow a group to discriminate. Um, WTF?
Thankfully Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sonia Sotomayor inserted some logic into the discussion citing what would happen if women and minorities were banned.
“What is wrong with the purpose of a school to say, ‘We don’t wish (to recognize) any group that discriminates?’ ” Sotomayor asked.
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While the current justices battle it out over discrimination, a separate battle looms for potential Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.
The big question seems to be about her sexuality. Is she gay? Well, around the Harvard campus, that appears to be an open secret. It’s not hard to find sites calling her a lesbian [5].
But whether she is gay or straight should not be the issue. If she is gay, she is making a huge effort to keep it quiet – an Internet finds her personal life is strictly under wraps. What is at issue is her stance. Her lack of actual judicial experience leaves little written record of her opinions.
If she is in fact nominated, as can be inferred from the over-the-top “She’s not gay” denials emanating from the White House, much will be made of her anti-Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell stance. Shortly after taking over as dean at Harvard, Kagan shot an e-mail to students over having military recruiters on campus.
“This action causes me deep distress. I abhor the military’s discriminatory recruitment policy,” Kagan wrote. She called DADT “a profound wrong — a moral injustice of the first order.”
She is standing up for the LGBT community and has done so in the past. If she wants to hide in the closet, fine by me. But if that closet starts impeding a potential justice’s judgment, I’ll be the first in line to out her.
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Speaking of standing up for rights, New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center refuses to be intimidated after staff discovered a torched rainbow flag last wee [7]k.
“The act of hate demonstrated outside the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in the Village is unacceptable,” Christin Quinn said in a statement. “I was angered and deeply disturbed when I heard someone would go to such great lengths to burn a rainbow flag and pin it to the outside of the building.”
In response, the Center plans to unfurl a new 20-foot flag on Wednesday that will drape the building.
“We invite our straight allies to stand with us to demonstrate that LGBT safety and rights are not just an issue for LGBT people. Our city is strong and we need to come together to show that we cannot be intimidated,” the Center said in a message posted on their website.
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And in another example of standing up for rainbow rights, the Tennessee teen who was reprimanded [9] for wearing an “I (heart) Lady Gay Gay” T-shirt, with the help of the ACLU, convinced school officials the T-shirt was acceptable.
The ACLU told The Chattanoogan [10] they have assurances from the school it will not censor gay fashion.
“Students not only have a First Amendment right to be out at school, but the right to an education free from discrimination and harassment,” Tricia Herzfeld, ACLU of Tennessee staff attorney, told the newspaper. “We applaud the school for recognizing this and taking steps to ensure that they are providing a safe and equal learning environment for all students.”
I (heart) teens who stand up for fashion.
[1] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-supreme-court-top.jpg
[2] http://www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights-religion-belief/christian-legal-society-v-martinez
[3] http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/RELIG-SCOTUS-STUDENTGROUP_2173652/RELIG-SCOTUS-STUDENTGROUP_2173652/
[4] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-kagan-gay-top.jpg
[5] http://www.epinions.com/review/educ-Law_Schools-All-Harvard_University_Law/content_219010666116
[6] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-torched-flag-top.jpg
[7] http://www.gaycenter.org/torchedflag
[8] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-gaga-tshirt-top.jpg
[9] http://www.wsmv.com/video/23072689/
[10] http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_173769.asp
History Is on My Side, Says Calif. Justice Who Voted Against Gay-Marriage Ban
Carlos Moreno stood alone in May when he dissented from the decision upholding Proposition 8. But the California Supreme Court justice says history will prove him right — that denying gays and lesbians the right to marry is illegal discrimination.
“Someday at some point my dissent will be the majority view in California,” he said during an interview in his San Francisco chambers late Wednesday. “I think that’s where the law is headed.”
“Equal protection is either equal or it’s not,” he added. “It’s not the kind of thing you can chip away at.”
Moreno, one of four justices to back same-sex marriage last year and the sole vote against Prop 8 this year, took time to talk to The Recorder about his votes, his brief moment on the Obama administration’s short list for the nation’s highest court, and U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s controversial “wise Latina” comment.
Moreno’s dissent in Strauss v. Horton, 46 Cal.4th 364, came at a touchy time for him. He had been contacted by the Obama administration a week earlier as a possible replacement for retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Since President Obama has officially stated his opposition to same-sex marriage, it could be assumed Moreno’s position on marriage and Prop 8 might be troublesome.
But, Moreno said, Obama’s vetters didn’t ask him how his Prop 8 vote — which wasn’t yet public — would go.
“They just asked if there were any high-profile cases — past or present, including on the trial court — that would be the kind of case that would draw attention.”
See History Is on My Side, Says Calif. Justice Who Voted Against Gay …
Law.com
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Sotomayor avoids saying whether marriage should be issue for federal courts
Sen. Charles Grassley had a testy exchange Wednesday with Judge Sonia Sotomayor about the federal government’s authority over marriage law.
During the Iowa Republican’s second turn at questioning the Supreme Court nominee, Grassley referred to a 1972 Supreme Court decision, Baker v. Nelson, in which the justices declined to consider a gay-marriage case. He asked whether she thought federal courts lacked authority to hear civil-rights cases involving marriage.
Sotomayor said the issue is pending in several courts, before Grassley cut her off.
“I thought I was asking a very simple question,” he said.
He ticked off a list of cases Sotomayor had referenced as precedent during her testimony on Tuesday. “You said these are precedents,” Grassley continued, raising his voice. “Now, are you saying to me that Baker v. Nelson is not a precedent?”
“It’s not that I’m attempting not to answer your question, Senator Grassley,” she said.
Grassley interrupted again, “Why are you hedging on this?”
Finally, Sotomayor said it had been since law school that she had reviewed the case, prompting Grassley to move on to another topic.
See Sotomayor avoids saying whether marriage should be issue for federal courts
The Des Moines Register
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LA Times: Gay marriage question put to Sotomayor
The Los Angeles Times nots that Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) asked Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor about a court ruling that said Minnesota could deny a marriage license to two men.
From the Times:
“Did she agree, he asked, that the case, Baker vs. Nelson, reserved the question of marriage to …
Vanasco: Sotomayor hearings live
WNYC has live audio and video of today’s hearings with Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor - there might be questions about gay marriage this afternoon, so you may want to tune in. The hearings will be on break from 12:45 pm to 2:00 p.m.
She’s likely to get confirmed; hopefully we’ll get a …
Sotomayor makes rounds on Capitol Hill
(Washington) Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is racing through a crucial set of meetings with senators on Capitol Hill, working to reassure Republicans who worry she’d bring ethnic and gender bias to her decisions.
Sotomayor, who would be the high court’s first Hispanic and third woman, is telling senators in both …
