Special Supreme Court Report

Many in the gay community feared that it would be their greatest defeat since the beginning of the gay rights movement. Instead, it turned out to be the most important legal victory for sexual freedom in the history of the United States.

The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether to uphold a Texas law that makes homosexual sodomy a crime while heterosexual sodomy is not a crime. The gay community thought that they might have a chance at a victory on equal protection grounds. They knew that they had little chance of voiding the anti-sodomy law as a whole, since the Supreme Court in 1986 had affirmed the right of States to outlaw sodomy. They thought that the argument that Texas' anti-sodomy law unfairly singled out gays while allowing the identical behavior to remain legal amongst heterosexuals might stand a chance in court.

It was a big risk. If they lost, anti-gay laws would be officially sanctioned by the court. The gay rights movement would be set back on its heels. In any state with anti-sodomy laws, gays would automatically be criminals under the law.

So, what is sodomy? Originally, the term referred to any non-procreative act. Technically, much like obscenity, it has no real legal definition, but has generally been used against acts of anal or oral sex. 

It seems amazing that oral and anal sex could be outlawed, but that is exactly what the Supreme Court affirmed in 1986, where they ruled in favor of Georgia's anti-sodomy law. In that case, the law applied to all. Many consider Bowers v. Hardwick, as the case is known, as one of the classic Supreme Court errors, along with rulings allowing slavery and separate but equal education. The arguments used by the justices in that case are mind-numbing and almost impossible to follow. They were clearly based on prejudice and not fact or law.

What few imagined possible was that the court would not just overturn the Texas law, but the Bowers v. Hardwick decision as well. It is rare for the Supreme Court to reverse itself, but that is exactly what they did here.

It is truly a stunning decision of tremendous historical consequence. While the extreme conservatives are up in arms, the ruling clearly follows the general consensus of the public that the government should stay out of adult's bedrooms when it comes to consensual acts.

In another affirmation of sodomy, although in a more negative light, the court also struck down a California law that extended the statute of limitations in cases of child molestation. This law was used to arrest a number of Catholic priests that had managed to evade the law, in large part due to the help of the church itself, which moved them around and attempted to conceal their crimes.

Abusing children in the name of God is probably the worst crime you can commit against a child short of killing them. It is sad to so these horrible men released from prison.

However, I also agree that it is wrong to change the law retroactively. Who knows who that could be used against next, and it might not be folks quite so reprehensible. 

Even so, I am glad to see that the law was passed, even if I knew it would probably be overturned. Without the law, many of these priests would never have been publicly exposed and subject to arrest. It may be a small victory and not the justice most would hope for, but it is better than the silence the Catholic church attempted to perpetuate. 

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