Sodomy Appeal Reaches Arkansas High Court
The Advocate,
November 2, 2001
The fight over Arkansas's 24-year-old antisodomy law has reached the
state's supreme court, which has been asked to decide whether sexual
activities that are legal for straight people should be illegal for gay
people. The New York City-based Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund,
representing seven Arkansans who say they are gay, filed papers this week
responding to state efforts to keep the law alive. Arkansas law, the group
said, "singles out gay men and lesbians for criminal condemnation for
engaging in the very same conduct freely permitted heterosexuals."
Pulaski County circuit judge David Bogard ruled for the seven in April. He
said the legislature erred when it banned consensual, noncommercial sexual
activities among people of the same gender. Although no one had been
prosecuted under the 1977 law, the seven plaintiffs said they feared being
charged or convicted or losing their jobs or professional licenses. The office
of attorney general Mark Pryor appealed the ruling, filing a brief in August
and filing additional material in early October.
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