Texas Lawmaker Introduces Bill to Strike Down Sodomy Law
The Advocate,
January 23, 2001
A Texas lawmaker has introduced a bill that would strike down that state’s
100-year-old sodomy law, reports the Houston Chronicle. State representative
Debra Danburg (D-Houston) recently introduced the measure, saying that the
current law, which bans anal and oral sex between homosexuals, is archaic and
unconstitutional. "It’s only used for the very thing a majority of
Texans say they don’t support: discrimination," she said. Danburg has
filed six separate bills attempting to dismantle the sodomy law during her
legislative tenure. During the last two legislative sessions, the proposed
measures never made it out of committee. A 1998 case stemming from the arrest
of two adult males having consensual sex resulted in a June 2000 ruling by a
three-judge panel of the 14th circuit U.S. court of appeals that the Texas
sodomy law violates the state constitution’s Equal Rights Amendment by
unfairly targeting gays. The case has been appealed and is currently pending
before the full court of appeals; no hearing date has been set. "I think
there’s a particular timeliness to bringing this up [in the legislature],
given that ruling," said Dianne Hardy-Garcia, executive director of the
Lesbian and Gay Rights Lobby of Texas. "Debra’s the perfect person to
carry it; she understands and has followed this legal battle and legislative
battle for years." The state’s Republican Party strongly opposes
revoking the sodomy law and even went so far as to add language to its state
party platform vilifying the two Republican judges on the court of appeals
panel who voted that the law is unconstitutional.
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