"This is a giant

"This is a giant leap forward to a day where we are no longer branded as criminals."
I couldn't hardly believe the decision of the Supreme Court today when they overturned the Texas sodomy law. Not only that, but all sodomy laws in the nation were killed in the judgment! I don't know if all of us realize just how huge this decision was. It means that at least on the issue of sexual privacy, we are equal to everyone else now. I don't know about you, but it's going to take a few days for that to register. I thought that we would have to take on states such as Texas, Idaho and others one by one to try to make gay citizens equal to others. Now, with one judgment, all those laws have been killed. Not only that, but the Hardwick case was overturned in the judgment. I wish that Michael Hardwick was alive today. He would have enjoyed seeing this happen.

The next big Supreme Court decision will be to overturn state and Federal laws outlawing gay marriage. I don't think I will see that happen because I don't feel I will be alive that long. The best I can hope for is to get married and to have my state of Connecticut honor that (long shot) and that Kent will ask me to marry him. Below is the news from around the world and nation on the case.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Ban On Gay Sex. WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Supreme Court struck down a ban on gay sex Thursday, ruling that the law was an unconstitutional violation of privacy. The 6-3 ruling reverses course from a ruling 17 years ago that states could punish homosexuals for what such laws historically called deviant sex. Laws forbidding homosexual sex, once universal, now are rare. Those on the books are rarely enforced but underpin other kinds of discrimination, lawyers for two Texas men had argued to the court. The men "are entitled to respect for their private lives," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote. "The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime," he said.

The two men at the heart of the case, John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner were each fined $200 and spent a night in jail for the misdemeanor sex charge in 1998.

The case began when a neighbor with a grudge faked a distress call to police, telling them that a man was "going crazy" in Lawrence's apartment. Police went to the apartment, pushed open the door and found the two men having anal sex.

"This ruling lets us get on with our lives and it opens the door for gay people all over the country," Lawrence said Thursday. Ruth Harlow, one of Lawrence's lawyers, called the ruling historic.

"The court had the courage to reverse one of its gravest mistakes and to replace that with a resounding statement," of gay civil rights, Harlow said. "This is a giant leap forward to a day where we are no longer branded as criminals."

Texas defended its sodomy law as in keeping with the state's interest in protecting marriage and child-rearing. Homosexual sodomy, the state argued in legal papers, "has nothing to do with marriage or conception or parenthood and it is not on a par with these sacred choices." The state had urged the court to draw a constitutional line "at the threshold of the marital bedroom." Although Texas itself did not make the argument, some of the state's supporters told the justices in friend-of-the-court filings that invalidating sodomy laws could take the court down the path of allowing same-sex marriage.
Supreme Court strikes down Texas' ban on gay sex (Houston Chronicle)
US court overturns gay sex ban (BBC News)
Supreme Court expected to issue ruling on sodomy laws (CNN)
Sodomy law ruling expected today (The Daily Texan)
Lambda praises gay rights ruling (The Washingston Times)
Alabama gay group praises court ruling on sodomy law