“Straight” Men File “Gay” Lawsuit
Some straight men will go to great lengths to prove their heterosexuality. Take, for example, 29-year old Ross Weil and his pal, 28-year old Brett Royce. The terrible twosome are suing alma mater American University for $1.5 million after the university erroneously announced their same-sex marriage:
[The men] filed a $1.5 million defamation suit against American University in Manhattan federal court on Aug. 30, claiming the school acted maliciously and with “gross negligence” by printing the announcement.The Class Notes section of the spring edition of American Magazine, a quarterly publication for the Washington, D.C., university, asserted that Weil and Royce tied the knot in Boston on June 10, 2006.
The newsletter also trumpeted that Weil, a certified public accountant, was named “chief operating officer of the Gay Rights Brigade,” a made-up group.
“No one contacted my clients to check the information,” said lawyer Michael Kaufman, who represents Manhattan residents Weil and Royce. “Obviously, neither of my clients submitted it.”
The lawyer also insists this lawsuit has nothing to do with homophobia. Of course not. It’s just supreme stupidity.
All in all, this is kind of hilarious. I love that they’re suing the school instead of weeding out whoever spent a dollar to place a sophomoric joke classie at their expense.
And since being billed as a couple is So Horrible that it’s worth going to court, I hope they double their tuition debts over this frivolous lawsuit.
That’s brillant. Now I’m going to fake gay marry all my old roommates, but instead they can be captains in the hershey highway patrol.
How can the lawyer honestly argue this lawsuit has nothing to do with homophobia? His clients are suing for defamation of character. What is “defaming” about a marriage announcement, even a false one? The only way they can argue their case is to argue that the underlying implication of the announcement (that both men are gay) somehow impugns their character. I fail to see how that argument can not be interpreted as being rooted in homophobia.