Antonin Scalia: 'I'm not a hater of homosexuals at all'

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia insists he doesn't hate gay people.

In a wide-ranging interview published Monday with New York magazine, Scalia said that he has many friends he suspects are gay.

"I have friends that I know, or very much suspect, are homosexual," Scalia said. "Everybody does."

"Have any of them come out to you?"

"No. No. Not that I know of," he answered.

When the interviewer asked Scalia whether his attitude has softened toward gay people, he insisted he does not hate gay people.

"I don't think they [my children] and I differ very much [on the issue]. But I'm not a hater of homosexuals at all," Scalia said. "I still think it's Catholic teaching that it's wrong. Okay? But I don't hate the people that engage in it. In my legal opinions, all I've said is that I don't think the Constitution requires the people to adopt one view or the other."

"Maybe the world is spinning toward a wider acceptance of homosexual rights, and here's Scalia, standing athwart it," he later added. "At least standing athwart it as a constitutional entitlement. But I have never been custodian of my legacy."

At one point he whispered: "I even believe in the Devil"

"Yeah, he's a real person. Hey, c'mon, that's standard Catholic doctrine!"

Scalia said that the Devil is "smart" and finding success by "getting people not to believe in him or in God."