From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
Subject: Kentucky court throws out 'sodomy' law /ww
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: The NY Transfer News Service
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 19:41:05 GMT

 Kentucky court throws out `sodomy' law
 By Shelley Ettinger

The lesbian and gay rights movement won an important victory
Sept. 24 when the Kentucky Supreme Court threw out the state's
anti-"sodomy" law. Legal experts called it a key ruling that
could herald the beginning of the end for the 23 other state laws
that make homosexual sex a crime.

The court's decision was based on the state constitution's
guarantees of the rights to privacy and equal treatment under the
law. The majority opinion found the state violated Jeffrey
Wasson's rights when it arrested him in 1986 for asking another
man to go home with him and have sex.

Spokespeople for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, one of
dozens of groups that had filed legal briefs in the case, hailed
the ruling. They said it boosted the struggle to get rid of all
"sodomy" laws.

In 1986, the same year Kentucky police arrested Wasson, the U.S.
Supreme Court heard a challenge to Georgia's "sodomy" law. Police
there had arrested a gay man for having sex in his home with
another man. In that case, the high court upheld the Georgia law.
The Bowers decision held there is no federal Constitutional
guarantee to privacy or equal protection for gay people.

The ruling enraged the lesbian and gay community, leading to days
of mass street protests in several cities. Even as lesbians and
gays have won passage of civil rights measures in scores of
cities and six states, the struggle to overturn the "sodomy" laws
has remained an important focus.

The Kentucky law was specifically aimed at gay people. As do the
laws in seven other states, it prohibited sexual acts between two
people of the same sex. The other 16 "sodomy" laws bar some
heterosexual activities as well. But states do not arrest or
prosecute heterosexuals for violating a "sodomy" law.

Although it's not widely publicized, police in several states do
still arrest and imprison gay people--usually men--under the
statutes. These are not simply obscure, arcane laws left over
from the bad old days but ignored. Their purpose, as defined in
their title, is to criminalize homosexuality.

The dictionary defines the word "sodomy," which has biblical
roots, as "anal sex between two male persons." Thus, the sole
function of "sodomy" laws is to persecute--and prosecute--gays.

Activists say the movement that demanded and won an end to
Kentucky's "sodomy" law will fight on throughout the country.
Meanwhile, Kentucky's lesbian and gay community celebrated the
hard-won right to live their lives without fear of being thrown
in jail for loving whom they choose.

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "workers@mcimail.com".)


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