jenk

Quotes from the Texas sodomy case:

The facts of Lawrence are straightforward and mostly undisputed: Texas police entered the apartment of Houston resident John Lawrence in response to a neighbor's fabricated claim that a man in there with a gun was "going crazy." What the cops actually found was Lawrence and Tyron Garner having anal sex, for which they were promptly arrested under a Texas law prohibiting "deviate sexual behavior" (i.e., oral or anal sex) between persons of the same gender.

Pause here to consider that bestiality is not considered "deviate" under Texas law.

[Justice] Scalia argues that sodomy laws have been on the books from the beginning of the republic, they just included heterosexual and married couples.

"It's conceded by the state of Texas that married couples can't be regulated in their private sexual decisions," says Smith [attorney for the men]. To which Scalia rejoins, "They may have conceded it, but I haven't."

[Arguing for the law, Rosenthal says] "There is approval of homosexuality. But not of homosexual activity." Scalia wonders how there can be such widespread "approval" if Congress still refuses to add homosexuals to classes of citizens protected by the civil rights laws.

Smith says these laws say "you can't have sexual activity at all" if you are gay and Scalia objects: "They just say you can't have sexual intimacy with a person of the same sex." See? No problem. Homosexuals remain perfectly at liberty to have heterosexual sex in Texas.

Rosenthal says there's a good place to draw the line of privacy and fundamental rights, and that line is "at the bedroom door."

"But the line is at the bedroom door in this case!" yelps Justice Breyer. To which Rosenthal says something suggesting that the two co-plaintiffs (who have been fighting this case together since 1998) may not have been having consensual sex.

Breyer notes that during World War I people also thought it "immoral" to "teach German in schools. … Immoral is a hard line to draw."

"There is a rational basis," insists Rosenthal.

"You're not giving us a rational basis," snaps Breyer.

"The rational basis," says Scalia, "is that the state thinks it's immoral. Like bigamy or adultery."

"Or teaching German," grins Breyer.

Souter wonders why Texas doesn't limit sodomy among heterosexuals. "Because it can lead to marriage and procreation," says Rosenthal. (So you really want your daughters to be good at oral sex, folks, if you want to see them married.) Rosenthal closes by telling the court that Texas is not really homophobic. In fact, they recently passed hate crime legislation making it illegal to commit crimes based on sexual orientation. How sweet. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asks why any homosexual would run for public office in Texas, knowing he'll be charged by his opponents with being a lawbreaker. Rosenthal assures her that he could only be called a lawbreaker if he "commits that act."

So—to sum up—any homosexuals out there who have renounced the actual having-of-sex, and are just gay for the privilege of being stigmatized: Know that you are not only loved in Texas, you may well be its next governor.