Letter: You and Deeds Need Clarity on Sodomy
C-Ville Weekly,
January 8-14, 2002
222 South Street, Charlottesville, VA 22902
Fax: 434-817-2758
Email: editor@c-ville.com
Your report about Virginia’s archaic crimes against nature law was
incomplete and perhaps misleading. [December 18: Update: "Stiff
Penalty."]
Here are the facts. That law, as written, does indeed apply to everyone,
married and unmarried, gay and straight. It also applies everywhere, to public
as well as private situations.
However, the bill rejected by the Courts of Justice Committee in the House
of Delegates earlier this year [2001] was not a "watered down"
version; it would have repealed the penalties for sodomy in private, adult,
consensual situations.
More importantly, it also contained a tough-on-crime provision that would
have increased the penalties for public consensual conduct.
It was this measure that then-Delegate Creigh Deeds and others rejected.
Since the bill addressed the public sex problem, and according to Senator
Deeds, the existing law is not applied to private situations, you may need to
ask Senator Deeds again why he and the others opposed the bill.
Bill Kocol, Alexandria, wgkocol@aol.com
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