Shocked, Shocked

Underbelly’s chief obituary reader is at work again (link):

Robert K. Skolrood, a lawyer who battled for fundamentalist Christians on issues that included nativity displays and gay rights and who often examined the intricacies of the United States Constitution, died on Feb. 20 in Venice, Fla. He was 79. …

Mr. Skolrood was executive director of the National Legal Foundation, which the Rev. Pat Robertson began in 1985. The foundation split from Mr. Robertson in 1988 but continued to advance what its mission statement calls “God’s purpose.” …

He fought against gay rights by helping to word an initiative on the Colorado ballot in 1992 that would have barred any special protection for homosexuals. The amendment to the state’s constitution passed but was struck down by the United States Supreme Court four years later.

Mr. Skolrood helped to draft an amendment to the Cincinnati City Charter to similarly deprive homosexuals of specific legal protections; voters approved the measure in 1993. …

In 2002, when he was semi-retired, Mr. Skolrood was arrested on charges of uttering obscenities and making sexual advances toward a male undercover police officer at an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway. He denied all the charges at a trial before a federal magistrate in Roanoke, Va., but he pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, and paid a $125 fine.

According to The Roanoke Times, Magistrate Judge Glen Conrad said, “That area has been notorious for problems of an unsavory sort,” adding that “there’s no question that you shouldn’t have been there.”