Subject: DC:Sodomy Statute Invoked in gay theater raid
From: Blythe Systems <[email-masked]>

Via The NY Transfer News Service 718-448-2358, 718-448-2683
 
from The (Electronic) Gay Community Magazine - February 28 1992
 
LIFESTYLE: The Gay 90's
 
       D.C. SODOMY STATUTE INVOKED AS COPS RAID GAY THEATER
 
WASHINGTON, DC (EGCM) -- District of Columbia police invoked the
city's archaic sodomy law when 15 officers raided a gay theater
and arrested 11 patrons and staff members for sodomy. The National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) denounced the use of the law
and participated in a protest the next day outside the city's
municipal building organized by several local gay groups.
 
The D.C. sodomy law is a felony and bans all oral and anal
heterosexual or homosexual contact, even between consenting adults
in the privacy of their own home. However, sodomy laws are
routinely used to harass and intimidate gay and lesbian people,
said NGLTF Program Organizer Robin Kane.
 
"The use of the intrusive, discriminatory law in any situation is
an affront to gay and lesbian people, who are automatically sex
criminals under the current law," said Kane. "Enforcement of the
sodomy law at this time is especially epidemic of hate crimes
against our community." Kane noted that the DC Police Department
has not yet fully enforced the 1989 Bias Related Crimes Act, which
would protect gay and lesbian victims of hate crimes.
 
Relations between the police and the gay and lesbian community
have been especially strained in DC since last Halloween. At that
time, police made several arrests while clearing a holiday street
celebration in a gay neighborhood. Witnesses reported that police
used excessive force and shouted anti-gay epithets during the
sweep, prompting both the mayor and police chief to publicly
apology to the gay community.
 
NGLTF called on the DC City Council to repeal the sodomy law and
stop police harassment of the gay and lesbian community. A bill to
repeal the sodomy law has been tied up in the city council since
1985.
 
Meanwhile, in Texas a district court judge struck down the Dallas
Police Department's use of the sodomy law as justification for a
ban on lesbian and gay officers. The decision was heralded by
NGLTF as a direct blow against Texas' homosexual-only sodomy law.
 
Mica England, a lesbian who moved to Dallas in 1989 after being
recruited for the police force, was rejected by the police
department when she disclosed to interviewers her sexual
orientation. Because the Texas sodomy statute makes all gay and
lesbian people unconvicted criminals, police officials said, they
are therefore ineligible for serving on the police force. Lambda
Legal Defense and Education Fund represented England in her
successful challenge to the police ban. The Dallas Police
Department announced it will appeal the decision.
 
In his ruling, Judge Larry Fuller of the Travis County District
Court stated that the ban on gay officers violated the right to
privacy guaranteed by the Texas state constitution. The judge also
invoked a 1991 Austin district court ruling that struck down the
state sodomy law on the same grounds. That ruling only applies to
the Austin district, but is currently on appeal with a decision
expected in the spring.
 
In addition to being uses as a rationale to ban gay people from
police departments and other law enforcement and security jobs,
sodomy laws are often used to deny gay and lesbian parents custody
of their children. "Like the Dallas Police Department, judges in
many states reason that because gay people are unconvicted
criminals under existing sodomy laws, they are unfit parents,"
said NGLTF's Kane.
 
Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have sodomy laws
on the books, with nine of those states banning only homosexual
sodomy and the rest prohibiting both homosexual and heterosexual
sodomy. Court cases which challenge the sodomy laws are pending in
Texas, Michigan, and Kentucky.
 
For more information contact: The National Gay & Lesbian Task
Force; 1734 Fourteenth Street NW; Washington, DC 20009; Voice
202-332-6483; Fax 202-332-0207. Be sure to mention in your
correspondence that you heard of this through The Electronic Gay
Community Magazine.
 
                               ###
 
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