Why Amy Coney Barrett’s Use of “Sexual Preference” Is So Alarming

During Tuesday’s Senate confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked the nominee whether she shared her mentor Justice Antonin Scalia’s hostility toward gay rights. If confirmed, Feinstein asked, would Barrett, like Scalia, “be a consistent vote to roll back hard-fought freedoms and protections for the LGBT community”? Barrett responded that she had “no agenda,” a line Scalia also used during his own confirmation hearing. She then elaborated: “I do want to be clear that I have never discriminated on the basis of sexual preference and would not discriminate on the basis of sexual preference.”