What business does the government have in your bedroom? Can gay celibacy be
imposed by law? The Supreme court is deciding a Texas Sodomy case. The GLBT
community prepares to celebrate or protest. Transcript of Oral Arguement
On September 17, 1998, John Lawrence and Tyron Garner were having sex in
the bedroom of John's apartment in Houston. They were adults and the
relationship was consensual. They left the front door unlocked. Police
officers, responding to a false call and looking for an armed intruder,
entered the apartment with their guns drawn. John and Tyron were arrested
for violating the Texas sodomy law ? a relic of our intolerant past that no
modern nation should tolerate still. The two men spent the night in jail,
were fined $200 each, and are now considered sex offenders in several
states. more
The state should not have the power to go into the bedrooms of consenting
adults in the middle of the night and arrest them, but that?s only the
beginning of the damage done by this law and others like it around the
country. These laws are widely used to justify discrimination against gay
people in everyday life; they?re invoked in denying employment to gay
people, in refusing custody or visitation for gay parents, and even in
intimidating gay people out of exercising their First Amendment rights.
- Ruth Harlow, Lead Attorney, Lambda Legal
In a related story, there's been a little hub bub over a couple of gay men
kissing on national television to celebrate their winning a Tony.
http://www.indymedia.org/
And...
During his keynote address at a black-tie dinner in Atlanta last month,
U.S. Sen. John Edwards voiced his support for adoptions by gay parents.
But Edwards, one of nine Democrats seeking the party�s presidential
nomination, isn�t the only one courting gay voters. Former Vermont Gov.
Howard Dean has touted a law he signed allowing civil unions for gays and
lesbians. U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, a decorated Vietnam
veteran, has said gays should be allowed to serve in the military. Bill
Clinton made history in 1992 by openly courting gay voters en route to the
White House. Eleven years later, the courting of gay voters is under way
like never before.
�In a crowded race or a close race, an energized and mobilized constituency
can make a real difference,� said Dave Noble, executive director of the
National Stonewall Democrats, a group that promotes the agenda of gays
within the party. �Right now, we�ve got so many different candidates going
after the community, and there�s not one candidate the community has
settled upon.�
Exit polls from the 2000 presidential election showed that 4 percent of
voters were gay and that close to three-quarters of them voted for Democrat
Al Gore. In the 2004 Democratic primaries, their influence could prove
pivotal, activists argue. Several candidates for next year�s race,
including Edwards, have hired staff members to advise them on gay issues.
U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri has said his daughter, Chrissy, will
be an ambassador to gay groups. She is a lesbian.
�The gay community has become one of the constituencies you have to meet to
be a viable Democrat,� said Steve Elmendorf, a top adviser to Gephardt�s
campaign.
That was clear during last month�s Democratic debate in South Carolina. The
nine candidates each touted their gay-rights credentials and universally
condemned anti-sodomy laws as an invasion of privacy. Six of the nine
candidates have endorsed the idea of civil unions, though most won�t go as
far to say they support gay marriage.
Edwards also spoke in Atlanta last month at an event held by the Human
Rights Campaign, the nation�s largest gay-rights group. His speech also
included calls for greater workplace protections and stepped-up efforts to
find an AIDS vaccine. �I was raised to believe in an America that embraces
everybody,� Edwards said.
When speaking of adoptions by gay parents, Edwards said, �In a world where
far too many children are neglected or unwanted, we need to encourage
responsible, loving adults to raise children, which is why I support the
rights of gays and lesbians to adopt children.�
Quite a shift for Edwards who during his 1998 Senate race, said he was
opposed to gay marriage. Although he does not object to states� recognizing
civil unions, he continues to have reservations about both gay marriage and
civil unions, said Jennifer Palmieri, Edwards� campaign spokeswoman.
�It�s an issue he thinks the country � and North Carolina � is not ready
for,� Palmieri said.
Meanwhile The New York Post writes: Activists on the other side of the
spectrum are attacking Mary Cheney for not speaking out in favor of gays.
"Three years ago, during the 2000 presidential election, current Vice
President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter fell back into the closet the way
Michael Jackson's career fell into the toilet - so completely that an
industrial plunger couldn't pull it out," writes columnist Michael Alvear.
"Mary Cheney is every person who watched a mugging and didn't stop it,"
Alvear says. "She's every coward who ran when thugs attacked her friends.
She's every woman who turned blind as her brothers got strung up, every
woman who turned away when her sisters got slapped to the ground."
Working himself into a rage, Alvear sums up, "Mary Cheney is not just the
very worst within our own community; she is the very worst within our own
hearts."
http://www.therealgeneross.com/
