Comments on: Speaking of anti-choice hypocrisy…

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 15:38:32 +0000

Mel and Erik have stated only the tip of the iceberg on Dan Hughes. As they indicate, he is notorious here at GULC – starting with 1L year when he throw a hissy fit and disrupted class when a professor made fun of Lynne Cheney’s books. He also opposed groups handing out condoms on World AIDS Day. He claimed in the law weekly to have been propositioned by Mark Foley. When asked to contribute to EJF he decried their “pro-public interest bias” since they don’t give money to people like him with high paid firm jobs. He has been an opponent of EJF forever. Basically he’s an attention whore so I’m sure all of us writing about him is making him quite happy. And yes, he states often that he is a gay, catholic, republican. So you have to expect him to be messed up in the head.

By: Erik

Erik — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 02:56:13 +0000

Yeah, the website seems to be down. I’m not on the Law Weekly, so I may not have access to the print archives, but I will see what I can find.

By: Jill

Jill — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 20:25:29 +0000

Like Mel, I am a classmate of Dan’s at GULC. He has published blurbs in the Georgetown Law Weekly about having had sex with men, so he is personally in violation of the church’s teachings.

Erik, do you happen to have copies of those articles? I tried to find them online but they aren’t there. If you could send them to me (scanned or whatever), I would be deeply indebted.

By: nausicaa

nausicaa — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 17:03:58 +0000

Is Dan Hughs even Catholic? The idea of a non-catholic, sexually active gay man using this slimy tactic (the unprovoked nuclear option, as someone wrote upthread) to further his political agenda is incredibly distasteful.

By: BStu

BStu — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 16:40:57 +0000

It probably wouldn’t, though, since OutLaw exists due to a lawsuit settlement – if GULC dismantles OutLaw, they’ll be in violation of a settlement agreement.

Actually, if Georgetown wanted to put up a fight, I think they could shut down OUTLaw and other gay student groups. They did settle a lawsuit on this issue, but in response to the settlement the law they were violating was changed to allow an institution like Georgetown to discriminate against gay student organizations (Armstrong Amendment, I believe).

Georgetown has chosen to honor the settlement they reached, but wouldn’t they have legal grounds to back out of it since the law was changed following the settlement? I’m afraid I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know how such a situation would be handled. If you reach a settlement based on a law which is subseqently reversed, are you still bound to that settlement?

If the Church ordered Georgetown to fight, though, believe me it would. Given that the Armstrong Amendment is still law, I think the gay student organizations at Georgetown should feel little security if Hughes’ tactics are taken up by anti-gay groups. At the very least, they would have a very protracted fight on their hands.

By: Erik

Erik — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 16:24:41 +0000

Like Mel, I am a classmate of Dan’s at GULC. He has published blurbs in the Georgetown Law Weekly about having had sex with men, so he is personally in violation of the church’s teachings. This is not the first time he has aimed his crosshairs at the Equal Justice Foundation; back in the fall, he published an op-ed in the Law Weekly decrying EJF’s annual fundraising auction because of the level of alcohol consumption.

And for what it’s worth, his hypocrisy seems readily apparent to every member of the student body and faculty except him.

By: Jill

Jill — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 16:18:19 +0000

See, that’s what Hughes is relying on. The people he attacks with this tactic wouldn’t want to use it against him. But by showcasing this tactic, he’s just giving a blueprint to anti-gay groups to get OUTLaw banned.

Apparently OUTLaw can’t be dismantled, but I imagine Georgetown could refuse funding to students who work at gay-friendly organizations, like Lambda Legal.

And then I have a feeling he wouldn’t mind too much when all the progressive, pro-choice GLBT-identified people and allies stood up for the rights to students to work at organizations that promote those civil rights.

By: Mel

Mel — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 15:48:58 +0000

Dan Hughes isn’t trying to crawl back into the closet. He’s openly, outwardly, proudly gay. This means that he has sex with men, something he’s had multiple discussions with folks on campus about. It isn’t a case of a gay man attempting to follow catholic teaching, including the church’s prohibition on gay sex. It’s a case of a gay man trying to pick and choose which of the church’s teachings best suit him and his political agenda.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 14:56:35 +0000

Good point, BStu. I was just wondering whether or not the same tactic could be used against OUTLaw. Apparently, according to your post, it could.

It probably wouldn’t, though, since OutLaw exists due to a lawsuit settlement – if GULC dismantles OutLaw, they’ll be in violation of a settlement agreement.

By: When Roy Cohn Died in 1986, His Spirit Moved on... « Mercury Rising 鳯女

When Roy Cohn Died in 1986, His Spirit Moved on... « Mercury Rising 鳯女 — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 14:36:47 +0000

[...] ; Posted by Phoenix Woman on April 9th, 2007 …and infected a toddler named Daniel Hughes, who is now a law student at Georgetown: George [...]