Gosh!!!
TUESDAY, JUN 17, 2014 2:25 PM UTC
Sodomy in every state!
A victory for privacy in Alabama -- why are other states still clinging to outdated laws?
MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS Follow
(Credit: MoreISO via iStock)
You hear that? It’s the sound of Antonin Scalia’s heart breaking. This week, an Alabama appeals court unanimously declared the portion of the state’s sexual misconduct law pertaining to consensual oral and anal sex was unconstitutional. The law had previously declared that “Consent is no defense to a prosecution under this subdivision” but was challenged after Dallas County’s Dewayne Williams was convicted of a “lesser included offense” of sexual misconduct for what he claims was consensual gay sex in 2010. He had been sentenced to a year in jail. (The prosecutor claimed the sex was nonconsenting.)
Civil rights are declaring the new ruling a victory against laws long designed to punish gay people. And as USA Today pointed out on Monday, there are still several more states with similar sexual activity laws on the books, including four — Oklahoma, Kansas, Kentucky and Texas — that specifically cite homosexual behavior. You’d think that by now they’d long be a thing of the past. It’s been eleven years since the landmark Lawrence vs. Texas decision, the Supreme Court ruling that declared state laws banning homosexual sodomy “unconstitutional as a violation of the right to privacy.” In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia grimly warned, “State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity… every single one of these laws is called into question by today’s decision.” Still hilarious.
http://www.salon.com/2014/06/17/sodomy_in_every_state/?source=newsletter
TUESDAY, JUN 17, 2014 2:25 PM UTC
Sodomy in every state!
A victory for privacy in Alabama -- why are other states still clinging to outdated laws?
MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS Follow
(Credit: MoreISO via iStock)You hear that? It’s the sound of Antonin Scalia’s heart breaking. This week, an Alabama appeals court unanimously declared the portion of the state’s sexual misconduct law pertaining to consensual oral and anal sex was unconstitutional. The law had previously declared that “Consent is no defense to a prosecution under this subdivision” but was challenged after Dallas County’s Dewayne Williams was convicted of a “lesser included offense” of sexual misconduct for what he claims was consensual gay sex in 2010. He had been sentenced to a year in jail. (The prosecutor claimed the sex was nonconsenting.)
Civil rights are declaring the new ruling a victory against laws long designed to punish gay people. And as USA Today pointed out on Monday, there are still several more states with similar sexual activity laws on the books, including four — Oklahoma, Kansas, Kentucky and Texas — that specifically cite homosexual behavior. You’d think that by now they’d long be a thing of the past. It’s been eleven years since the landmark Lawrence vs. Texas decision, the Supreme Court ruling that declared state laws banning homosexual sodomy “unconstitutional as a violation of the right to privacy.” In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia grimly warned, “State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity… every single one of these laws is called into question by today’s decision.” Still hilarious.
http://www.salon.com/2014/06/17/sodomy_in_every_state/?source=newsletter
