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 Against State's Sodomy Law Local Lesbians & Gay Men Help End Second-class Citizenry Law Had Violated Constitutional Rights to Privacy, Protection |
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Compiled by GayToday
Little Rock, Arkansas-- After hearing oral arguments (Jegley v. Picado) the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled favorably (Friday June 5) in a lawsuit argued late last month by the attorneys of seven lesbian and gay Arkansas residents who challenged the state's same-sex-only sodomy law.
The Supreme Court of Arkansas Thus, the state's highest court is now affirming that the newly-defunct law constituted an unconstitutional invasion of privacy. It had been passed in 1977, the same year that religious fundamentalist Anita's Bryant's anti-gay crusades garnered national attention. Friday's Arkansas Supreme Court decision says: "We agree that the police power may not be used to enforce a majority morality on persons whose conduct does not harm others…A fundamental right to privacy is implicit in the Arkansas constitution." Arkansas, until Friday, had been one of six states that specifically criminalized private, same-gender sex between (or among) consenting adults. Texas, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Utah now remain as five U.S. hold-outs where same-sex lovemaking remains defined as criminal activity. In June, The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund had urged 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 argued that the law had violated plaintiffs' constitutional rights to privacy and equal protection.
"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…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." |
