Sotomayor's pro-gay past emerges

June 10, 7:34 PMInternational LGBT Issues ExaminerKelvin Lynch

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         US Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor

US Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has a gay-friendly past.

A 1976 letter co-signed by Sotomayor that appeared in the Princeton daily newsletter, which has been introduced to the Senate Judiciary Committee, expresses her views on gay rights. It's a response to an attack on two gay Princeton students who were members of the school's Gay Alliance and is directed at the Univerisity's chairman.

The letter reads,

“For private citizens to try to intimidate the Gay Alliance into silence is a denial of the foundations on which a university is built.  No matter how much one may disagree with the Gay Alliance or the policies they are advocating, no matter how repugnant one may find homosexuality, the manner of expressing this opposition should be intellectual. At this university we are dedicated to persuasion by reason, not by brute force. We hope that freedom of expression on this campus is still intact. We must keep it that way by supporting all forms of expression, not just those with which we are comfortable."

The letter flies in the face of Conservatives who have labeled her an “activist judge" and proves that she does not harbor an extreme ideology.  However, by their twisted logic, the letter is certain to provide fodder for social conservatives who pointlessly attempt to pin a judicial activist label on Sotomayor as her nomination moves forward.

It should be noted that Sotomayor's views as a student 33 years ago could be quite different from her views now, but the letter is strong evidence that she is pro-gay.

If she's confirmed (which by all accounts appears to be a sure thing), Sotomayor will be the first Hispanic Justice to sit on the US Supreme Court.

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