New Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley's Homophobic Quotes Are Despicable

While voters in Wisconsin went to the polls to ultimately express their support for Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Bernie Sanders, it turns out that the results of the state's Supreme Court justice race may be the most concerning. 

Originally appointed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker to fill a Supreme Court seat in the state after the death of a justice, Rebecca Bradley persuaded voters to extend her appointment for a much longer tenure. 

But some of the things Bradley has said about the gay community shouldn't sit well with Wisconsin residents.

In college newspaper columns at the Marquette Tribune — unearthed by nonprofit One Wisconsin Now — Bradley referred to gay people as "degenerates" and "queers" who participated in "AIDS-producing sex." 

"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 1992. Bradley also bemoaned that AIDS got more research money and awareness than other diseases, like cancer. 

"How sad that the lives of degenerate drug addicts and queers are valued more than the innocent victims of more prevalent ailments," she wrote. 

"Heterosexual sex is very healthy in a loving marital relationship," she continued. "Homosexual sex, however, kills." 

The World Health Organization estimates that 37 million people worldwide are living with HIV and while 57% of people living with HIV in the United States are either gay or bisexual men, most news HIV infections worldwide happen through heterosexual sex.  

Prior to her election, advocates from One Wisconsin Now asked Bradley to resign from her post. 

"The hate and vitriol for others Rebecca Bradley displayed in her writings was repugnant and unbecoming for a university student then and it is absolutely unacceptable for a justice of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court today," executive director Scot Ross said in a statement on One Wisconsin Now's website. "She is unfit to serve on our high court, and if she has a shred of decency or integrity she will resign immediately."

Though Bradley has since apologized for the columns, saying they have "nothing to do with who I am as a person or a jurist," her more recent columns also show a penchant for harsh language. 

In a 2006 column in the now-defunct publication MKE, Bradley insinuated that pharmacists distributing birth control are "a party to murder." 

Bradley joins a Supreme Court that has upheld Wisconsin ID laws, making Wisconsin one of the hardest places in America to get a voter ID.