During the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Amy Coney Barrett on Tuesday, Sen. Cory Booker, who never misses a chance to grandstand before the cameras, lectured her on using the term “sexual preference” instead of the more woke “sexual orientation.”
After Sen. Mazie Hirono had criticized Barrett’s use of the term, which implies a degree of choice, Booker said to the Judge, “I wanted to offer you a further opportunity to address the issue that I don’t think you got to fully address, that my colleague brought up. When you did use the term ‘sexual preference’ earlier today, rather than ‘sexual orientation’ — is there a difference, and what is it?”
Barrett replied, “I did not mean to imply that I think that, you know, that it’s not a matter of — that it is not an immutable characteristic, or that it’s solely a matter of preference. I honestly did not mean any offense, or to make any statement by that… I’m saying I was not trying to make any comment on it. I fully respect all the rights of the LGBT community… I reject any kind of discrimination on any sort of basis.
Slate.com has called the term an “anti-gay dog whistle to the religious right,”even though it was common for leftists including Barack Obama to use it as recently as just prior to the confirmation hearing. As soon as a Republican used the term, it suddenly became bigoted.