Sodomy Law Reaffirmed
Sodomy Law Furthers "Moral Welfare," Says Georgia Court
ACLU Newswire, March 12, 1996
By DennyCLU@AOL.COM
Ten years after Bowers v. Hardwick -- the controversial U.S. Supreme Court
decision upholding the constitutionality of Georgia's sodomy statute -- the high court of
Georgia ruled Monday that the state's sodomy law is a legitimate use of state power to
further "the moral welfare of the public." The challenge to the law was brought
by L. Chris Christiansen, who was convicted of a misdemeanor for seeking oral sex from a
sheriff's deputy. Christiansen, fined $500 and put on probation for a year, argued that
the state constitution's guarantee of privacy and free expression shields adults from
prosecution for private consensual, non-commercial sodomy. While few are ever prosecuted
under sodomy statutes (which remain in 19 states), such laws are often used as a pretext
to deny lesbian and gay men basic civil rights. In recent years, several courts have even
invoked sodomy laws to determine job discrimination and child custody cases. (ACLU
Newswire is a compilation of the day's breaking civil liberties stories, available at http://www.aclu.org and American Online -- keyword
"ACLU".)
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