# Is the "Lemon Test" applicable to state discrimination against gays?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-lemon-test-applicable-to-state-discrimination-against-gays/241401>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [April 22, 2004, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-lemon-test-applicable-to-state-discrimination-against-gays/241401 "2004-04-22T10:37:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2004, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-lemon-test-applicable-to-state-discrimination-against-gays/241401/21 "2004-04-25T16:43:19Z")

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Actually, any debate professor will tell you that Vidal won that debate when Buckley resorted to ad-homs. As for my youth and beauty, I appreciate the fact that in your erotic dreams about me I look like the [young Vidal](http://www.harold-lang.com/Beach.jpg)\*, but if you must know I look like what I am: a 1/4 Jewish burly Chilton County hillbilly (except when I look like [Teddy Roosevelt](http://www.worldwiderant.com/standing.jpg), but that’s only by appointment).  
\*Gore’s the one on the right; the man on the left is his partner Harold. (They were together for 53 years until Harold’s death last September.)

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**Author:** ![Milum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Milum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milum)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-lemon-test-applicable-to-state-discrimination-against-gays/241401/22 "2004-04-26T04:10:19Z")

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**Sampiro** , _from Alabama now living in Georgia wrote_ :

> [@](#):
>
> Actually, any debate professor will tell you that Vidal won that debate when Buckley resorted to ad-homs.

What? Calling someone a “Nazi’ is not an ad hom, while calling someone a “queer” is? Get your semantics straight, being called a " queer” is not all that bad, but being called a "nazi’, murderers of millions, is.

I thought you knew that.

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**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-lemon-test-applicable-to-state-discrimination-against-gays/241401/23 "2004-04-26T04:19:39Z")

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> [@Milum](#):
>
> **Sampiro** :
> 
> What? Calling someone a “Nazi’ is not an ad hom, while calling someone a “queer” is? Get your semantics straight, being called a " queer” is not all that bad, but being called a "nazi’, murderers of millions, is.
> 
> I thought you knew that.

Technically he called him a _pro crypto-Nazi_ based upon his views of police use of force. He was attacking Buckley’s political views (which, in fact, can be argued to resemble those of fascist Germans). I can see an argument that it’s ad hom or an argument that it’s not. Buckley’s responded by calling him a “goddamned queer” and threatening to physically assault him, which cannot be argued not to be an ad-hom. Essentially the debate was a two-person clusterfuck, but Buckley came out the worse.

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**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-lemon-test-applicable-to-state-discrimination-against-gays/241401/24 "2004-04-26T04:21:07Z")

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> [@Milum](#):
>
> **Sampiro** , _from Alabama now living in Georgia wrote_ :

PS- You left out _posing as somdomite_

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