ACLU v. Puerto Rico Sodomy Law
NewsPlanet,
June 26, 1998
Summary: 3 couples and the ACLU are out to prove that "crime against
nature" laws are in themselves crimes against free speech and other basic rights.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has announced that it filed a lawsuit in San
Juan on June 22 on behalf of three gay and lesbian couples to challenge Puerto Rico's
"crime against nature" law. That law prescribes penalties of up to $1,000 or 10
years in prison for anyone who "has sexual intercourse with people of the same sex or
commits the crime against nature with a human being." The ACLU claims that the law
violates the constitutions of both the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and of the U.S. on
three grounds: equal protection before the law, privacy, and vagueness. "This case is
about securing basic civil liberties," said ACLU National Lesbian and Gay Rights
Project staff attorney Michael Adams. "Laws criminalizing sexual intimacy have been
used in workplaces to deny lesbians and gay men jobs. They have been used to take children
away from parents who are gay. In Puerto Rico, they have even been used by politicians to
threaten gay citizens who speak out for their rights."
The only one of the plaintiffs to actually have been accused of violating the law is
openly lesbian Christian minister and activist Margarita Sanchez De Leon, for whom the
case is named. When she sought to testify before members of the legislature, she was asked
if she was a lesbian, and when she responded "Yes," she was told that she could
be arrested. The lawsuit charges that her free speech rights were violated in that
process, and says that she and her "Jane Doe" partner fear arrest and
prosecution. The other plaintiffs are Bayamon HIV health educator Jose Joaquin Mulinelli
and his "John Doe" partner, a nurse; and San Juan couple University of Puerto
Rico chemistry professor Edgard Danielsen Morales and federal employee William Moran
Berberena.
[Home] [News] [Puerto Rico]
