Arizona Lawmakers Wrangle Over Sodomy Repeal
DataLounge,
March 29, 2001 http://www.datalounge.com/datalounge/news/record.html?record=13971
PHOENIX, Az. — The Arizona Republic reports state
representatives were at each others’ throats this week over the proposed
repeal of Arizona’s sodomy law, in a debate that saw the abandonment of even
the most basic standards of public decorum.
The debate apparently began with openly gay Rep. Steve May ridiculing the
enforcement of the law. He notes that in 1944, police used the law as a
pretext to invade a private residence, "because they heard the crime of
fellatio being committed from outside."
Fellow Republican Rep. Randy Graf suggested that instead of rescinding the
sodomy law, police and state officials adopt a "don’t ask, don’t
tell" approach to citizens’ private sexual conduct. This suggestion
prompted a loud "Oh, God!" from Rep. May, who spent the better part
of two years fighting the military on its enforcement of that clause.
The Republic reports Democratic Rep. Bill Brotherton successfully attached
the sodomy repeal measure to a bill sponsored by arch-conservative Rep. Jeff
Hatch-Miller. Hatch-Miller’s bill closing a loophole in the state’s child
pornography laws was now the vehicle abolishing state prohibitions on sodomy
and oral sex between consenting adults.
Hatch-Miller, needless to say, was not pleased with this development.
Railing against House members seeking to "advance their gay agenda,"
the lawmaker voted against his own bill and then threatened to kill any bill
sponsored by a gay legislator (the newspaper notes there are three in the
state House).
Rep. Karen Johnson, notorious for railing against what she terms the
pernicious evils of homosexuality, took the House floor to demand the Arizona
Legislature not condone sodomy, oral sex or other crimes against nature by
rescinding the law. The Republic reports she defended the sodomy statutes by
saying,"these are not feel-good laws."
The newspaper wryly noted that some might be inclined to take issue with
that characterization.
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