Liberals Shouldn't Treat Wilkinson at UVA Like the Right Is Obama at Notre Dame

Hello. I'm not sure why you think he's not a bigot. This is a very basic and standard definition of bigot (from dictionary.com): One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

In the column you refer to, Judge Wilkinson says that homosexual marriages threaten our entire way of life. If he had said interracial marriages threaten our entire way of life, you would certainly call him a bigot and you might feel some antipathy at his invitation to speak at your school.

Here's an excerpt from a letter to the editor I wrote.

... the University of Virginia is considering offering a platform to Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, a bigot.

After Wilkinson’s 2006 opinion piece in the Washington Post few can question his bigotry. According to Wilkinson, same-sex marriage corrupts a “stable and healthy social order” and marriage equality is a matter better “left to ordinary legislation” than the judiciary. Had this been the case, only Vermont would allow same-sex marriage. This might please Wilkinson because, later in his column writes, “alternative marriage structures might weaken the sanction of law and custom necessary for human families to flourish and children to grow.” Yet while federal judges can be bigots, bigots don’t have to give commencement addresses.

If this is factually wrong, please correct me. As I see it, this one column is clearly the work of an intolerant (read: Bigoted) man.

I am not gay and I am not a student at UVA (I'm a grad student at the University of Mississippi) but as a student of Southern history I know how bigots used to (and still do) speak--very rarely do they come right out and yell hateful vitriol. Yes, the judge is well spoken but please do not let that fool you.

Thanks,

jesse

Jesse Wright of TX 2:01AM April 14, 2009