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 Against State Sodomy Law Seven Arkansans Seek End of Stigma as Second-class Citizens Only Same-Sex Couples are Forbidden Certain Sexual Acts |
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Compiled by GayToday Lambda Legal
Little Rock, Arkansas-- The Arkansas Supreme Court heard oral
argument yesterday on Jegley v. Picado, a lawsuit brought by seven lesbian and
gay Arkansas residents challenging the state's same-sex-only sodomy law.
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund (Lambda Legal) is urging the court, on behalf of the plaintiffs, to strike down the state's ban on intimate relations between consenting adults of the same sex. Working with local counsel, Lambda Legal argues the law violates plaintiffs' constitutional rights to privacy and equal protection. The Arkansas law does not apply to heterosexual couples, singling out same-sex couples for a criminal ban on consensual sex with punishment up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Lambda Legal filed the Picado case in January 1998 and the state fought unsuccessfully to have it dismissed. Both sides filed motions for summary judgment and in March 2001, Judge David B. Bogard of the Pulaski County Circuit Court overturned the anti-gay sodomy law, ruling that the statute violates the rights of gays and lesbians to privacy under the Arkansas constitution. Judge Bogard's ruling marks the first time an Arkansas court recognized that there is a right to privacy under the state constitution. The Office of the Attorney General of Arkansas appealed Bogard's decision to the Arkansas Supreme Court. "The men and women standing up in the Arkansas Supreme Court today are upstanding citizens of the state -- your neighbors, co-workers, brothers and sisters -- but they are deemed criminals under this sodomy law," stated Susan Sommer, supervising attorney for Lambda Legal, who successfully argued the case in the lower court. "They live with the threat of arrest every day. The stigma that hangs over them with this unfair law on the books fuels an atmosphere that condones discrimination, gay bashing and hate." The Arkansas citizens who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit include, among others, the following: * Elena Picado, a junior high school Spanish teacher and mother of two children * Charlotte Downey, owner of a bait-and-tackle shop * Randy McCain, a minister at a nondenominational Christian church * Bryan Manire, a high school counselor * Vernon Stokay, a writer "This law has a terrible impact on gay and lesbian people in Arkansas. It is used against gay parents in custody cases, it is used by employers to discriminate, it is used by police to harass," said David Ivers, cooperating attorney with Emily Sneddon of the Little Rock firm of Mitchell, Blackstock, Barnes, Wagoner & Ivers.
The amicus brief from the religious leaders and legal scholars states, "that private, consensual sexual conduct is a matter of individual, personal conscience, and not a matter for state prohibition through the criminal laws." Judge Bogard, in ruling that it is unconstitutional for Arkansas to ban consensual sex for adult same-sex couples, stated: It is consistent with this State's Constitution to hold that an adult's right to engage in consensual and noncommercial sexual activities in the privacy of that adult's home is a matter of intimate personal concern which is at the heart of the right to privacy in Arkansas, and this right should not be diminished or afforded less constitutional protection when the adults engaging in that private activity are of the same gender. Only three other states Kansas -- Oklahoma, and Texas -- have anti-gay laws like that of Arkansas. Courts in other states, including Georgia, Kentucky, Montana, and Tennessee, have struck down so-called sodomy laws. Ten states criminalize private oral and anal sex for both gay and non-gay consenting adults. Lambda Legal is also challenging the Texas "Homosexual Conduct Law" and next month will likely ask the United States Supreme Court to decide the constitutionality of that law. The Texas case involves two Houston men who were arrested and convicted of violating the law by having sex in the privacy of one man's home. |
