Court Says Arkansas Sodomy Law Challenge May Proceed
Lambda rebuffs third attempt to deny lesbians and gay men their day in court
Lambda Legal Defense And Education Fund
News Release
For Immediate Release: Friday, February 11, 2000
Contact: Travis Tu, 212-809-8585 x 222, 1-888-987-1971 (pager)
Beatrice Dohrn 212-809-8585 x 211
NEW YORK, February 11, 2000—The Arkansas Circuit Court has ruled
that the legal challenge to the state’s 1977 law forbidding certain sex acts between
consenting adults of the same sex can go forward, paving the way for seven lesbian and gay
Arkansans to finally have their day in court, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
said.
This was the third failed attempt by the Arkansas Attorney General and the Pulaski
County
Prosecuting Attorney to have the case dismissed.
Said Lambda Legal Director Beatrice Dohrn, "We are thrilled that at long last we
will be able to argue the merits of this case. Lesbian and gay Arkansans continue to
suffer under this discriminatory and unfair invasion of their privacy. We hope soon to put
a stop to that."
She noted, "Three Arkansas courts, including the highest in the state, have
rejected these desperate attempts to keep our challenge out of court. Having this unfair
law on the books preserves a second class status for lesbian and gay citizens of
Arkansas."
The Chancery Court’s decision issued Thursday bolstered the case, Bryant v.
Picado, by affirming that seven Arkansans have sued the correct state officials in
seeking relief from injuries caused by the defendants’ power to enforce the sodomy
law against them.
Circuit Court Judge David B. Bogard, delivering the opinion of the court, wrote,
"The plaintiffs seek an injunction preventing the enforcement of the Sodomy Statute.
Thus, they may bring this suit against the two defendants in their official
capacity." On the federal claims, the court released the Attorney General as a
defendant but retained the prosecutor as defendant.
Enacted by the Arkansas legislature in 1977, the statute makes private oral and anal
sex between two consenting adults of the same sex punishable by a maximum $1,000 fine and
one-year jail sentence. Because the law does not apply to the same acts when done by
different-sex couples, Lambda argues that the sodomy ban treats lesbians and gay Arkansans
as second-class citizens.
Sixteen states have laws that criminalize certain private sexual acts between
consenting adults; of these, five states, including Arkansas, have laws that single out
lesbians and gay men.
Lambda has helped overturn sodomy laws in Georgia, Montana, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
Arkansas may well be the next state to dust off its law books and reject such an archaic
law. Lambda also is challenging the Texas Homosexual Conduct Law on behalf of two men
arrested and charged with having sex inside one man’s bedroom.
Lambda Cooperating Attorneys David Ivers and Emily Sneddon of Mitchell, Blackstock,
Barnes, Wagoner and Ivers, and Arkansas attorney Gary Sullivan, are assisting in the case.
Lambda is the nation’s oldest and largest legal organization serving lesbians, gay
men, and people with HIV and AIDS.
(Bryant v. Picado, No. 98-01233)
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Link directly to Lambda’s news release:
http://www.lambdalegal.org/cgi-bin/pages/documents/record?record=574
=======================================
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
www.lambdalegal.org
National Headquarters
120 Wall Street, Suite 1500
New York, NY 10005-3904
212-809-8585 phone
212-809-0055 fax
lambdalegal@lambdalegal.org
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