"gay agenda"

[James A. Landau]

>Justice Scalia writes:

>>"the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by >>
some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium
>>that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct."

Scalia had some reason to use the expression "so-called".  The possibility
that occurs to me is that he is emphasizing that "homosexual agenda" as used in
this sentence means a plan or plot restricted to "some" activists, as opposed
to being part of the "proposed list of items to be discussed" of the typical
gay political activist.  If true, this means that Scalia is in agreement with
most of the comments made so far on this thread.

I made no implication that "removing the moral opprobrium" is a PRIMARY
agenda item for activists, but merely that it is AN agenda item of the typical
activist.  Maybe I'm dense, but it seemed obvious to me.

As for Scalia's using "homosexual" rather than "gay", remember that his
dissent is a formal document, written in formal language, and the word "gay", even
if PC, is still slangy or at least colloquial.  And why did I use "gay" in the
previous paragraph?  Because it has seven fewer letters to type.

On the other hand, Scalia appears to have fallen asleep later in the
paragraph being discussed, when he says "a law firm (no matter how small) that does
not wish to hire as a prospective partner a person who openly engages
in homosexual conduct."  I'd bet that the policy in question should have been
described as "not willing to hire..."  "wish" implies that the law firm has a
quota of openly gay lawyers to be hired.

      - James A. Landau (who'd be better off discussing ice cream)