Friday, May 14, 2010

batting for the other side

This just in:
An American newspaper has been accused of attempting to "out" Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan as a lesbian by publishing a front page photograph of her playing softball.

The Wall Street Journal was attacked for using a 1993 image of Miss Kagan, who was nominated for the top court by President Barack Obama this week, holding a bat during her time as a teacher at the University of Chicago.

Critics have claimed the sport is regarded as a "lesbian" pastime in the minds of many Americans and the picture was used to allude to rumours about her sexuality.

John Wright, of gay newspaper Dallas Voice, told Politico: "Personally I think the newspaper, which happens to have the largest circulation of any in the US, might as well have gone with a headline that said, 'Lesbian or switch-hitter?'."

Cathy Renna, a former spokesperson for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation, said: "It clearly is an allusion to her being gay. It's just too easy a punch line."

The newspaper has ridiculed the suggestion as "absurd" and the row has surprised many who were unaware softball had lesbian connotations.
What a strange country the US is. Include me among the "unaware."

The Washington Post has also announced to a breathless world that:
if Elena Kagan is confirmed to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, the Supreme Court would for the first time in its history be without a justice belonging to America's largest religious affiliations -- the Protestant traditions. If Kagan is confirmed, six of the justices will be Roman Catholic and three will be Jewish.

At least Yanks seem interested I suppose. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom was established by Part 3 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and started work on 1 October last year to almost complete indifference.

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