Judge Bradley apologizing for 24-year-old anti-gay comments

Group found newspaper columns
from her time at Marquette

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley is apologizing for anti-gay opinion pieces she wrote when a college student 24 years ago. 

Bradley says she is embarrassed about anti-gay pieces she wrote as a college student and they don’t reflect her worldview or current work as a judge. 

Monday, the liberal group One Wisconsin Now revealed a college newspaper column and letters to the editor Bradley wrote when a student at Marquette University in 1992. 

In one, Bradley compares homosexuals with drug addicts, saying they “essentially kill themselves and others through their own behavior.”

In another, reacting to the election of Bill Clinton as president, she describes him as “queer-loving” and says his victory “proves that the majority of voters are either totally stupid or entirely evil.” 

Bradley wrote in a statement she is “frankly embarrassed at the content and tone of what I wrote those many years ago.”

“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,” her statement said. “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.”

Later Monday, Bradley’s opponent in the state Supreme Court race said “there is no statute of limitations on hate.”

State Appeals Court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg says Bradley’s “are as abhorrent and disturbing today as they were in 1992 as people were dying in huge numbers from AIDS.” 

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s spokeswoman says he was not aware of her comments when he appointed her as a judge three times, including to the Supreme Court. 

Walker says Bradley has made it clear she no longer holds those views.