Barney Frank stands by Scalia ‘homophobe’ comment

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) stood by his remarks last week calling Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a “homophobe” during an interview Wednesday morning.

Frank said that Scalia’s writings on the court about gay rights have made it clear that his views about gays and lesbians extend beyond legal philosophy.

“Justice Scalia wrote a long, angry dissent in which he made it very clear he thought it was a perfectly good law and that, in fact, homosexuals as he refers to us, are bad people, and the notion that there ought to be any kind of legal protections is a mistake,” Frank said during an appearance on CNN’s “American Morning.”

“He is so angry about those of us who are maybe gay or lesbian that he thinks it takes sides in the culture war to say people shouldn’t be imprisoned for private sexual acts,” Frank added. “He says it’s taking sides in the culture war if you don’t send people to jail for having private, consenting sex. It’s got nothing to do with marriage.”

Watch a video of the appearance below: