Barney Frank Likens Scalia to Evil Fairy Tale Imp on 'Late Night'

Add "Rumpelstiltskin" to "stupid," "homophobe" and "bigot" on the list of names former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank has called U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Frank, who is openly gay, continued his ongoing criticism of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia last night on late night TV when he likened the arch-conservative constitutional purist to the ill-tempered fairy tale imp Rumpelstiltskin.

Speaking with Seth Meyers soon after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in cases that may decide whether gay marriage becomes the law of the land, Frank said he was optimistic the high court would rule on the side of equality.

"I cannot wait to see Justice Scalia's reaction,"Frank said. "I suspect that like Rumpelstiltskin he will stamp his foot and go up in a puff of smoke."

Frank's barb at Scalia Tuesday night is far from the first time that the former Massachusetts representative has publicly mocked the high court's most vocal opponent to gay rights.

In a 2009 interview, he called Scalia a "homophobe" when discussing gay marriage and his expectation of the outcome with the current Supreme Court.

"I wouldn't want it to go to the United States Supreme Court now," Frank said. "Because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this current court."

In a 2012 interview with Michelangelo Signorile for the Huffington Post, Frank called Scalia "stupid" and a "bigot."

"And, by the way, for a guy who is supposed to be so smart -- quite stupid," he said. "This young man said to him, 'Why do you compare sodomy to murder?' And he said, 'Well because I have a right to say if I think something is immoral.'"

"Well the question wasn't about his right," he added. "The question was, By what morality is expressing your love for someone in a physical way equivalent to killing that person? It makes it clear that the man is an unreconstructed bigot, and given that you have a bigot on the Supreme Court like that, it is useful to know."

Three years later, Frank is much more optimistic and attributes the rapid speed of the progression of gay rights on visibility.

"Reality beats prejudice. [...] by the time I retired, being gay was much more popular than being a congressman," Frank told Myers. "There is only so long that myth can sustain itself against reality. When we were hidden we were these terrible people. Then people found out that we were their brothers and their doctors and their sisters and their cousins. The reality just eroded the prejudice and I think it's almost gone."

This story is part of our special report: "Courting Equality". Want to read more? Here's the full list.