The state Supreme Court unanimously struck down the nation's worst sodomy law, ruling that sexual activity between consenting adults of the same-gender is now permissible and may not be considered grounds for arrest, imprisonment or fines. This highly significant victory has been nearly a quarter-century in the making.

Although no one has been prosecuted under the 24-year old gay sex-ban, a four-year-old lawsuit successfully argued that same-sex lovers are forced to live in fear of being charged with a crime and that such fear is responsible for chilling worries taking their psychological tolls. In the 1993 case of Grayczan v. Montana, six gay and lesbian plaintiffs charged that the sodomy law violated Montana citizens' right to privacy guaranteed by the state's Constitution.

In February, 1996 District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock of Helena, agreed with the plaintiffs, his agreement now buttressed by Montana's highest court, refusing all state appeals to overturn Judge Sherlock's decision.

"Quite simply, consenting adults expect that neither the state nor their neighbors will be cohabitants in their bedrooms," said Justice James Nelson writing for Montana's Supreme Court. Same-sex lovers, according to the Justice, have a right not to have their sexual activities "subject to the prying eyes of others or to government snooping or regulation."

While society may not approve of gay sex, said the Justice, "there are certain rights so fundamental that they will not be denied to a minority no matter how despised by society."

The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Montana case, said the ruling is an important victory since sodomy laws are often used to deny lesbians and gay men a range of other rights, including employment and custody.

The ACLU currently has a similar sodomy legalization challenge pending in Kansas. Referring to the Montana victory, Matt Coles, director of the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights project said, "When the states began to repeal 'sodomy' laws in the 1970's, some decided to legalize all forms of sex for heterosexuals but to keep criminal penalties in place for gay people. This is one of the first of these laws to be struck down."

Montana's activists worked diligently to show that the law was unfair and that it denied them their guaranteed right to privacy. Montana's legal reprisals for same-sex lovemaking have been among the most severe in the nation because they prohibited simple same-gender "sexual contact" and not just the customary ban on anal and oral intercourse. Violators of the sodomy law faced up to ten years in prison and a maximum $50,000 in fines.

Religious fundamentalists who back the rejected anti-gay state statute have announced that Wednesday's court decision helps to undermine traditional family values and opens the state's door to the further spread of AIDS.

The court scorned such associations between the sodomy law and AIDS. The sodomy law, it explained, was enacted almost 10 years before the first AIDS case had been reported in Montana, and the presence of the gay-sex ban did not stop the disease from becoming the sixth-leading cause of death among middle-aged Montanans, the justices said.

While four other states have sodomy repeal measures alive, 28 states continue to have same-gender sodomy laws which make it illegal for some Americans to be intimate with whomever they choose to love.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court found no constitutional right to privacy for same-gender conduct, the 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick decision permitted each state to criminalize or decriminalize same-gender sodomy.

"Sodomy laws are the linchpin in every attack against the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. They are used to criminalize our behavior and as the basis for discrimination in employment, housing, health care and family issues. We applaud the court for its decision but salute the tireless work of Montana activists that made (Wednesday's) victory possible," said National Gay and Lesbian Task Force executive director Kerry Lobel.