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Tag: Alabama Gay Sex Ban

  • Alabama Gay Sex Ban Lifted: Justice or Agenda?

    An Alabama gay sex ban was overturned in an appeals court, striking down the law that criminalizes consensual same-sex relations.

    The law was found to be unconstitutional.

    Civil rights groups and gay activists are touting the striking of the law as a step in the right direction, but there is still a long road ahead.

    Apparently Alabama was one of 12 states that still have anti-sodomy laws in place.

    Attention was brought to this particular law in Alabama when the state attorney general brought a case to the Alabama Court of Appeals in which a prosecutor failed to secure a conviction for 1st degree sodomy on a defendant who was in a consensual relationship. The conviction was decreased to the lesser, non-felony charge of sexual misconduct.

    The law was unanimously overturned. Surprisingly, it was the first time the law’s constitutionality had been addressed since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a similar Texas law in 2003.

    Texas’ law was ruled to be an unconstitutional invasion of privacy. However, that ruling wasn’t unanimous. In the 6-3 decision the law, which stated that states could punish individuals for participating in what was referred to as “deviant sex”, was overturned after 17 years in effect.

    Judge Antonin Scalia, Judge Clarence Thomas, and Judge William H. Rehnquist dissented on the Texas vote, calling it a taking of sides in a culture war.

    “The court has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda,” Scalia wrote for the three, as he took the unusual step of reading his dissent statement from the bench.

    “The court has taken sides in the culture war,” Scalia said. He then insisted that he has “nothing against homosexuals.”

    Even now, in the 11 states that are left where such anti-sodomy laws remain in the books, those laws are rarely enforced.

    What do you think? Are these laws an unconstitutional prying into the bedrooms of America or have the courts simply given in to the widespread homosexual agenda?

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  • Alabama Gay Sex Ban Declared Unconstitutional

    Alabama has declared that the state’s anti-sodomy law is unconstitutional and overturned a ban on consensual homosexual acts this week.

    The ruling came about after the case of Dewayne Williams vs. State of Alabama, in which Williams was charged with first-degree sodomy. He testified that it was consensual sex, but was still convicted in 2010 of “sexual misconduct” under the law.

    Alabama has been under the scrutiny of human rights activists in recent years due to the laws, which are also active in nearly a dozen other states. The new ruling has been cause for celebration for gay rights activists, who say it is a giant step forward in the fight for equal rights.

    “Each and every person, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, is entitled to equal protection under the law,” Equality Alabama chairman Ben Cooper said in a statement. “The Alabama court’s unanimous decision overturning the statute is a step in the right direction and makes us optimistic for future and ongoing equal rights through the continued elimination of unconstitutional provisions in our state’s constitution that violate privacy and equal protections.”

    “Aiming to ban consensual sex is flat out wrong. A person’s sexual orientation shouldn’t matter. Consensual sex is just that — consensual — regardless of an individual’s sexual orientation. We don’t need government in our bedrooms,” said Susan Watson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama.

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  • Alabama Gay Sex Ban Overturned, Ruled Unconstitutional

    An appeals court in Alabama has ruled that the Alabama law criminalizing consensual homosexual conduct is unconstitutional, as it “applies to private, legitimately consensual anal and oral sex between unmarried persons.” Civil rights organizations cheered the state appeals court for the ruling.

    Based on the statute, consensual anal and oral sex was banned, as the court ruled that they were acts that criminalized homosexual activities. The Human Rights Campaign conducted a survey and said the results stated that Alabama is one of the dozen states that still have laws that prohibit consensual homosexual sex.

    Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, Susan Watson, said, “Aiming to ban consensual sex is flat out wrong. A person’s sexual orientation shouldn’t matter. Consensual sex is consensual sex.”

    The state attorney general’s office brought the case to the court after a prosecutor was unsuccessful in persuading the jury to convict a defendant on a felony charge of first-degree sodomy. In that case, the jury convicted the defendant on a lesser charge, which was sexual misconduct.

    On Monday, Michael Jackson, the prosecutor in the sodomy case, said that he understood why the ruling of the appeals court turned out that way. However, he also said that the victim was not brought to justice, since “he got attacked by another man and he had sex he didn’t want to have.”

    Chairman Ben Cooper of Equality Alabama was also in favor of the ruling. “Each and every person, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, is entitled to equal protection under the law,” he said. He also continued that the ruling is a step towards the right direction.

    According to the judges, it was the first time that the law’s constitutionality had been addressed since the United States Supreme Court overturned a similar law in Texas in 2003.

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