Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's wife, Martha-Ann Alito, received a sardonic tongue-lashing from New York Times writer Anna Marks following the latest undercover recording of her whining about her neighbor's Pride flags, and her longing for the day her husband no longer sits on the bench so she can kick her attacks into overdrive.
This comes after a series of reports showing the Alitos displayed pro-Trump and Christian nationalist symbols on their properties, including at the same time the far-right justice unsuccessfully tried to get the Supreme Court to take up a case reviewing the certification of Trump's election loss in Pennsylvania.
"'I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag,' she told a woman posing as a Catholic conservative, 'because I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month,'" wrote Marks. "Tellingly, in the surreptitiously recorded conversation, she even fantasized about creating her own fiery flag with the word 'vergogna' ('shame' in Italian) so she could say to her neighbors, 'Shame, shame, shame, on you.' Apparently, for Ms. Alito, the second great commandment, to love thy neighbor, applies only until the neighbor is proud enough to sport rainbows. Then vergogna!"
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"To be honest, these comments aren’t particularly surprising. Ms. Alito is the wife of a justice who agreed that the country needs to return to 'a place of godliness' and has argued that the court’s 2014 ruling on marriage equality restricts the free speech rights of religious conservatives. (If that’s really true, somebody should tell her to zip it before she’s jailed for her words.)" she continued. "They are also emblematic of a broader campaign by the religious right to erase or shame queer culture from public view, often in the form of attempted — and successful — bans on books, flags, drag performances and curriculums. The only thing mildly revealing about Ms. Alito’s comments is that they signal it is still socially acceptable for religious conservatives to demean the queer community in supposedly polite company."
Ms. Alito's fury over the Pride flag, added Marks, is a good reminder that for all the corporate ubiquity of the symbol, it still has a genuine undertone of defiance against hate.
"In the face of a rise in attempts to restrict cultural expressions of queer identity, the rainbow is still one of the best tools we have to collectively repudiate those who wish we were ashamed to be alive. We must wave it proudly," wrote Marks. "As for you, Martha-Ann, I say happy Pride Month! I’ll be praying for you."