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[personal profile] electricland
What gets me most about this Texas antisodomy ruling is the incredibly inflammatory (dare I say "injudicious"?) language used by Justice Scalia in the dissent. (It's a sad day when you're sitting there saying "Hm, Clarence Thomas, reasonable guy.")

And by the reaction from "family" groups.

Robert Knight, a spokesman for the conservative Culture and Family Institute, said Thursday's ruling would have "very real consequences."

Knight warned that it would undermine the legal foundation of marriage, lead to more deaths among gay men from sexually transmitted diseases and lead to schoolchildren being taught "that homosexual sodomy is the same as marital sex." (CNN)
The sad thing is, he probably believes it.

I'm not always the biggest Trudeau fan, but in this I can't agree with him more: "The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation."

Date: 2003-06-27 09:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladyjestyr.livejournal.com
homosexual sodomy is the same as marital sex

Yup, it is. It's an act of physical and usually emotional gratification between two consenting adults. So's marital sex. Not a problem, really. :)

Date: 2003-06-27 02:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] electricland.livejournal.com
oooh... I don't think you and Mr. Knight would get on at ALL... :)

...

Date: 2003-06-27 10:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] monkeycommando.livejournal.com
My problem with this whole debate is that it usually fails to address the whole legality/morality of heterosexual sodomy, which obviously would affect a greater number of Americans.

Re: ...

Date: 2003-06-27 02:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] electricland.livejournal.com
Well, there ARE states that still outlaw heterosexual sodomy as well. (CNN: "Of the 13 states with sodomy laws, four -- Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri -- prohibit oral and anal sex between same-sex couples. The other nine ban consensual sodomy for everyone: Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia.") Which is at least consistent.

Outlawing homosexual acts while allowing the same acts for heterosexuals is so clearly, blatantly discriminatory that I can't understand how ANY judge could get his/her head around it... oh wait... equal rights based on sexual orientation probably not yet protected under the Constitution. Gotcha.

But Scalia's language really did rock me:

Religious conservatives quickly criticized the decision, and in a sharply worded dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia said the court "has taken sides in the culture war." Scalia -- joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas -- said the court "has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda." (The dissent (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=02-102#dissent1))

"Let me be clear that I have nothing against homosexuals, or any other group, promoting their agenda though normal democratic means," Scalia wrote.
Yeah, if you say so.

Date: 2003-06-27 01:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] oblomova.livejournal.com
I'm not a huge Andrew Sullivan fan by any means, but he rightly pointed out on Salon a few days ago that encouraging homosexual marriage would seem to discourage promiscuity and thus deaths from sexually transmitted diseases. So if the Christian right really cares about gay men dying (uh huh), they should be on the front lines fighting for homosexual marriage.

Of course, the biggest threat to heterosexual marriage is divorce. So if they really want to "preserve" the family, why don't they fight to get rid of divorce? I mean, they don't want immoral divorced guys like Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Rush Limbaugh, etc., etc. as spokesmen for the Republican Right, do they?

Date: 2003-06-27 02:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] electricland.livejournal.com
Oh now you're just cheating by using logic. :P

Yep, outlawing divorce makes just as much sense as outlawing sodomy... more in fact...

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