Wednesday, December 4, 2002
Texas governor says state’s sodomy law is appropriate
A story released today by the Associated Press reports that according to Gov. Rick Perry of Texas the state law that bans same-sex copulation is "appropriate".
"I think our law is appropriate that we have on the books," Perry said.
The court will review the prosecution of two Houston men under a 28-year-old Texas law that makes it a crime to engage in same-sex intercourse.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in 1986 that consenting adults have no constitutional right to private homosexual sex, upholding laws that ban sodomy.
The Texas case involves John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner, who were arrested in 1998 in Lawrence's apartment, jailed overnight and later fined under Texas' Homosexual Conduct Law, which classifies anal or oral sex between two men or two women as deviate sexual intercourse.
The Supreme Court was told the convictions would prevent the men from getting certain jobs, and would in some states require them to register as sex offenders.
They were arrested after police responded to a false report of an armed intruder in Lawrence's apartment, called in by an acquaintance of the men. Police entered the unlocked apartment and found the men having sex.
