Martha-Ann Alito described a new flag she wants to design and fly when husband Justice Sam Alito is “free of this nonsense”.  Like a mean Betsy Ross responding to PRIDE, her flag would proclaim the word “Vergogna” , Italian for “shame”, bordered with something like orange and yellow flames.  Think “DaVinci Code” or other Masonic-style cryptic symbology, her flag may be suggesting the flames of a hellscape.  But why in Italian?  PRIDE is an American invention. One can speculate “vergogna” has to do with Italian culture, likely a dark side of Rome with a touch of Vatican-speak.  Then why not use traditional, proper Latin?  For a shame-soaked classical effect, she might have chosen the Latin “turpe” (shame, dishonor, filth) or “dedecus” (shame, disgrace, infamy, humiliation).  This has been the classical construct of revulsion and dishonor that has destroyed so many gay and lesbian Americans over the decades—the foundation of bare animus infused into American law since FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover launched his “Sex Deviate”program in 1951. (See the Mattachine Society of Washington, DC amicus brief in Obergefell v. Hodges.)

Martha-Ann Alito enjoys using flags to make her political points. Flags deal in non-verbal codes and symbols that can morph on demand.  They can mean slavery or states rights.  They can mean freedom or fascism, distress or insurrection. They can mean civic opprobrium or religious damnation.  Words and statements, on the other hand, require evidence and accountability for bare animus , not a good idea to fly on the deck of a Supreme Court Justice’s second home.  As parents tell young children who are howling to make their point, “use your words!”, Martha-Ann.