Hello,
It is hard to fathom how anyone who considers themselves an American can
countenance such ridiculous invasions of privacy as this article details.
Remember....the price of freedom is eternal vigilance...For way, way too long
the sniveling busybodies of America have been allowed to dictate our lives for
us....I say spit on the busybodies...they are unfit to breathe American air.
Sincerely,
Texas Pair To Fight Sodomy Charges
.c The Associated Press
HOUSTON (AP) -- Sheriff's deputies responding to a false report of an armed
intruder inside an apartment caught two men having sex and arrested them,
setting up a case that could bring an end to Texas' rarely enforced, 119-year-
old law against sodomy.
The law, modified by the 1995 Legislature, makes homosexual oral and anal sex
a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500.
"This is just unbelievable that in 1998, this sort of arrest could happen,"
said Mitchell Katine, a lawyer for the two men. Katine said they will fight
the charge on constitutional grounds.
After receiving the false report Sept. 17, Harris County sheriff's deputies
entered the apartment through what they said was an open door and found the
men having sex. One of the men lived in the apartment.
Tyrone Garner, 31, and John Geddes Lawrence, 55, cited for homosexual conduct
and jailed before being released on $200 bail.
The man who called police, Roger David Nance, pleaded no contest to filing a
false report and served 15 days in jail.
As for why the phony call about an armed intruder was made to police, David
Jones, an attorney for Garner and Lawrence, said there was probably a
"personality conflict between the caller and the people in the apartment."
Activists and attorneys couldn't cite another Texas case in which consenting
adults were prosecuted for engaging in private sexual conduct.
District Attorney John B. Holmes Jr. said two or three sodomy cases had been
prosecuted in Harris County over the last 30 years, but those involved
homosexual contact witnessed by others in jail. None involved conduct in
private.
Gay activists have tried for years to have the sodomy law struck from the
books, arguing that it is often used to justify anti-gay discrimination. But
with no defendant in a criminal case, efforts to remove the law have met with
mixed success.
Activists said the latest case could sink the sodomy law. "Obviously, that's
what we're hoping," said Clarence Bagby, president of the Houston Gay and
Lesbian Political Caucus.
The district attorney himself questioned the fairness of the law. "But I've
always said that the best way to get rid of a bad law is to enforce it,"
Holmes said.
Texas is one of six states that make consensual oral and anal sex between
homosexual couples a crime, even if the sex takes place behind closed doors in
a home. Thirteen other states have sodomy laws banning such sex between
heterosexual or homosexual couples.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 1986 upheld Georgia's sodomy law as applied to its
ban on consenting adults engaging in homosexual conduct. The Georgia law had
been challenged by a gay Atlanta bartender who was arrested in 1982 after
being spotted having sex in his home. Prosecutors later dropped the charge.
The decision prompted gay rights advocates to file lawsuits in state courts
arguing the laws violate state constitutions. Many constitutions provide
greater protection of privacy than the U.S. Constitution.
Neil McCabe, a professor at South Texas College of Law, said the Texas law is
unconstitutional.
"In these essentially private activities people are protected as part of a
constitutional right of privacy," McCabe said. "Our Texas courts have held
there is a constitutional right to privacy."
In Louisiana, a civil trial challenging the state's sodomy law began on Oct.
26.
AP-NY-11-06-98 1540EST
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news
report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed
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From: CEvans1950@aol.com
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 16:31:32 EST
Subject: False Americans
Caroline
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