Homosexuality Claim About Lawyer Is Not Defamation Per Se, Judge Rules
A judge has ruled that that the author of a book about the former lawyer for Anna Nicole Smith is not automatically liable for a claim of homosexuality.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin of Manhattan ruled (PDF posted by the New York Law Journal) that calling someone gay is not defamation per se because of a “veritable sea change in attitudes about homosexuality,” the New York Law Journal reports. He ruled in a suit by lawyer Howard K. Stern against television journalist Rita Cosby, who wrote the book Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith’s Death.
Chin noted that New York courts have held there are four categories of statements that constitute defamation per se, including accusations of serious crime or statements that tend to injure another in his trade or profession. Gay conduct is no longer a crime, he said, and gays and lesbians are no longer viewed as shameful or odious.
However, Chin said a jury could still find the statement is libelous, according to the Law Journal account. He allowed claims regarding 11 of 19 allegedly libelous statements made in the book, but said only Cosby could be liable, Reuters reports. The publisher could not be sued, he said, because it had no reason to doubt the truth of the book.
