Sex, Justice Thomas, and Love

Sex, Justice Thomas, and Love

Clarence Thomas and I were classmates at the College of the Holy Cross. We used to be friends, but now I feel betrayed.  The feeling of betrayal was reinforced on February 9, 2015 when he dissented from the denial of the stay that would have halted the enforcement of the Appeals Court’s ruling that Alabama state laws were in violation of the United States Constitution in the matter of same sex marriage.

We called him Cooze, after Bob Cousy.  Cooze was a political leftist during our time at Holy Cross and he modeled himself in many ways after the Black Panthers. He wore the army boots, leather jacket, and beret. During his first year of Yale Law School Cooze was mistaken for a street youth. When came back to visit we told him to buy a suit.

I knew him to be a gentleman with women, especially Black women. It came as a surprise, when during his nomination to the Supreme Court, I learned that he had divorced his first wife and remarried. I was also surprised when he rejected his sisters who had been at one time on welfare. I was hurt when he attacked affirmative action and started to blame Black people for poverty and racism.

Homosexuality during our college years was looked down upon. It might have even been a crime. Whether you were homosexual or not,  there was a fear of being called a homosexual. I am happy that the meaness and bullying that once was targeted against people who loved or were perceived to love other people of the same sex has decreased. Discrimination against homosexuals is now illegal in most areas of society.

Even today I have an irrational fear of being known as a homosexual. Today I thought  I was mature enough to not care what people thought of me, but I still have an irrational aversion to being known as a homosexual. I guess some of the damage that we suffer as children never goes away.

The logic of the equal protection of the Constitution found in the Fourteenth Amendment is a compelling argument for same sex marriage. When Justice Thomas wrote his dissent I was not too upset about it. I thought it was just Clarence being Clarence.  

That feeling changed when at the Political Artist fundraiser for the legal defense of Black Lives Matters protesters one of the poets talk of his personal life. His father is Native Indian and his mother is White.  He told us that when he was a boy he said to his father that he did not want to marry a White woman. His father told him to shut up; his mother is White. His father then said “You will marry the person that you love”.

That story cut through the pretext of Justice Thomas’ Dissent. The feelings of anger toward Justice Thomas had its scab removed. It motivated me to read his Dissent and write this column. People should be able to marry anyone they love when consent is given.

Justice Thomas’ Dissent stated that Alabama should be allowed to discriminate against homosexuals based only on the fact that it was past practice. There was no logic, theory, nor socially redeeming value found in the Dissent. It also contained a conundrum for Justice Thomas. He said that he was defending the people of Alabama; somehow he forgot that the Plaintiffs are people too.