Wisconsin Justice Apologizes For Student Columns Going Off On ‘Queers’ And AIDS

FILE - In this Oct. 9, 2015 file photo, Judge Rebecca Bradley speaks at the State Capitol in Madison, Wis., after being appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by Governor Scott Walker, right. Wisconsin primary vote... FILE - In this Oct. 9, 2015 file photo, Judge Rebecca Bradley speaks at the State Capitol in Madison, Wis., after being appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by Governor Scott Walker, right. Wisconsin primary voters on Tuesday, Feb. 16 will select two to compete in the April 5 election from a field of three candidates: Bradley, Appeals Court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg and Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Joe Donald. (John Hart/Wisconsin State Journal via AP, File) MANDATORY CREDIT MORE LESS
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Wisconsin state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote in a column more than 20 years ago that gay people are “degenerates who basically commit suicide through their behavior,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Bradley made the comments in columns she wrote for the Marquette Tribune in 1992 as a student. The columns were surfaced Monday by progressive activist group One Wisconsin Now.

Bradley, who was appointed to the court in October by Gov. Scott Walker (R) and faces election in April, apologized for the columns on Monday.

“To those offended by comments I made as a young college student, I apologize, and assure you that those comments are not reflective of my worldview,” she said in a statement, according to the Journal Sentinel. “These comments have nothing to do with who I am as a person or a jurist, and they have nothing to do with the issues facing the voters of this state.”

She also accused One Wisconsin Now of conducting a “blatant mudslinging campaign to distract the people from the issues at hand,” according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

Bradley made numerous disparaging comments about gay people in her student newspaper columns.

“How sad that the lives of degenerate drug addicts and queers are valued more than the innocent victims of more prevalent ailments,” she wrote in a column arguing that gay people are better off getting AIDS than cancer because the disease receives more funding, according to the Journal Sentinel.

“But the homosexuals and drug addicts who do essentially kill themselves and others through their own behavior deservedly receive none of my sympathy,” Bradley wrote in another column excerpt publicized by One Wisconsin Now.

She also wrote that people were either stupid or evil to vote for Bill Clinton.

“We’ve just had an election (in 1992) which proves the majority of voters are either totally stupid or entirely evil,” she wrote, according to the Journal Sentinel.

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Notable Replies

  1. “To those offended by comments I made as a young college student, I
    apologize, and assure you that those comments are not reflective of my
    worldview,”

    To those offended… Where have I heard that before? It seems so familiar…

  2. “How sad that the lives of degenerate drug addicts and queers are valued more than the innocent victims of more prevalent ailments,” she wrote in a column arguing that gay people are better off getting AIDS than cancer because the disease receives more funding, according to the Journal Sentinel.

    "But the homosexuals and drug addicts who do essentially kill themselves and others through their own behavior deservedly receive none of my sympathy…¨

    That was as sick 20 years ago as it is today.

    Scott Walker sure knows how to pick ´em.

  3. why do they always get so bent when the mud being slung is the muck out of their own mouths?

  4. With all due respect Ms. Bradley, your comments have everything to do with who you are as a person and also as a judge that must be impartial. To be blunt, shove your half-apology up your royal red neck ass.

  5. WI voters … get off your butts and vote for Kloppenburg on April 5th!

    We need to chip away at the evil that the Scooter admministration has inflicted on us.

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