Gay
Rights Case Stirring Local Interest
The
Journal Times, March 27, 2003
212 4th St., Racine, WI 53403
Fax: 416-631-1702 or 634-9194
Email: opinion@journaltimes.com
http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2003/03/27/news/daily_news/450supct.txt
By Phyllis Sides, Journal Times
RACINE—The gay-rights case
currently before the U.S. Supreme Court has stirred local interest.
Chris Semenas, a University of Wisconsin-Parkside
student, said it is ridiculous that some states pass judgment on what people
do in the privacy of their bedrooms.
“I hope they overrule the law. It’s ridiculous to
outlaw the love of two people of the same sex while they don’t go into the
bedrooms of heterosexual couples and regulate what they’re doing,” Semenas
said.
The Rev. Tony Larsen, of Olympia Brown Unitarian
Universalist Church, said he “can’t imagine why the government has any
right to be in our bedrooms.”
Patrick Flaherty, of the Milwaukee Lesbian Gay Bisexual
Transgender Community Center, said the center is hopeful the law will be
overturned.
He is director of community relations at the center which
provides support services to the gay, lesbian and transgender community in
southeastern Wisconsin. It’s the only center of its kind in southeastern
Wisconsin, Flaherty said.
“We are hopeful the court will see to it in this day
and age what two adults do in private is really their business and not the
government’s. We’re appalled the state of Texas is trying to prosecute
these two men whose home was invaded by the police,” Flaherty said.
Patrick Huey said he is frustrated time is spent on this
type of the case. Huey, who is co-owner of Flowers & Company, said he
feels sorry for the men in Texas for two reasons.
“Number one because they’re accidental activists and
number two the Supreme Court is rather conservatively stacked. For a gay guy
it’s kind of frustrating. Thank God, we live in Wisconsin because it’s a
rather progressive state,” Huey said.
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