Back Inside the Cave: Eyebrows Raised Over Shadows Presented in Boston College Law Prof's Anti-Gay Marriage Ad

In body language talk, raised eyebrows signal surprise and dismay and that's how BC law prof Scott Fitzgibbon punctuates his anti-gay marriage commercial attaching Maine's gay marriage ballot proposition after stating that "homosexual marriage will be taught in public schools whether parents like it or not." /:)

The commercial is now being shown on national television and has raised a few more eyebrows. BC Law Dean Garvey defended Fitzgibbon's right to make the commercial and his right to promote his position as a BC law professor in the ad on Wednesday, September 16th. Text republished on Above the Law with the observation that "if you believe that marriage is a basic civil right, then the issue can transcend the normal bounds of academic discourse." By last Friday, Dean Garvey had joined 70-plus other faculty and administrators (but not Fitzgibbon) in signing this damage control statement:

The undersigned members of the faculty and administration at Boston College Law School feel that it is important to reaffirm our belief in the equality of all of our students. We are proud of the fact that Boston College Law School was one of the first law schools in the country to include sexual orientation in its non-discrimination pledge, and we reaffirm our commitment to making our institution a welcome and safe place for all students, including LGBT students.

Above the Law writes "Fitzgibbon at least tries to stick to the legal issues surrounding the systematic denial of civil rights to gays and lesbians." :-! (Emphasis added) Not. Fitzgibbon also claims that “church organizations could lose their tax exemption." One would think any such lose would be due to gay couples getting married in Maine. Ah, no. See Bob Ambrogi's Controversy Continues Over Law Prof's Anti-Gay Ad for more on the material misrepresentations in the ad.

Fitzgibbon is the co-author of Glazer and FitzGibbon on Legal Opinions: Drafting, Interpreting and Supporting Closing Opinions in Business Transactions, 3rd ed (2008) and numerous articles on business law and legal philosophy including, for example, The Formless City of Plato's Republic: How the Legal and Social Promotion of Divorce and Same-Sex Marriage Contravenes the Principles and Undermines the Projects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Some philosopher, Fitzgibbon has conveniently forgotten Plato's Allegory of the Cave.

From Plato's Republic:

A man "is graceless and looks quite ridiculous when — with his sight still dim and before he has gotten sufficiently accustomed to the surrounding darkness — he is compelled in courtrooms or elsewhere to contend about the shadows of justice or the representations of which they are the shadows, and to dispute about the way these things are understood by men who have never seen justice itself?"

[JH]