<
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/04/supreme-court-analysis-sam-alito-homophobia.html>
"The Supreme Court’s conservative justices unleashed a torrent of homophobia on
Tuesday as they debated the meaning and propriety of several LGBTQ-themed
children’s books. Throughout arguments in
Mahmoud v. Taylor, these justices
voiced concern—and at times, outright disgust—toward these books for portraying
LGBTQ+ people as normal and loving. They argued that parents should have a
First Amendment right to shield their children from such material in public
schools, ostensibly to protect them from exposure to diverse families under the
auspices of religious liberty. Justice Samuel Alito reserved special ire for
Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, a gentle picture book that homophobic parents
initially attempted to censor when it debuted in 2008. Alito suggested, over
the objections of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, that the book is devious propaganda
aimed at indoctrinating children who harbor reservations about same-sex
marriage.
He is wrong. Alito did not just arguably miss the point of the book; he
fundamentally distorted it. As author Sarah Brannen told me on Wednesday, “The
book is written very simply, in language a 5-year-old can understand.” Brannen
speculated that Alito “was being deliberately misleading” in his summary of
Uncle Bobby’s Wedding from the bench, part of a broader effort to vilify both
the school board and same-sex families. This paranoid homophobia lies at the
heart of the whole case. The Republican-appointed justices made it abundantly
clear that they think woke educators are inculcating children with radical,
pro-LGBTQ+ values in violation of their parents’ religious beliefs. These
justices sound eager to give parents a veto over classroom materials to prevent
their children from learning about LGBTQ+ families. And they have zero concern
for the profoundly stigmatizing message this censorship sends to children who
belong to those very families."
Via Kenny Chaffin.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
