Summary/Context of Sanchez v. Puerto Rico
ACLU Lesbian And Gay Rights
Project/AIDS Project
Background
Puerto Rico’s nearly-100-year-old sodomy law states that "any person
who has sexual relations with a person of the same sex, or commits the crime
against nature with another human being" has committed a felony, which
can result in up to a 10-year jail sentence and/or a $1,000 fine. The law is
commonly interpreted to outlaw any sexual activity between members of the same
sex, and anal sex between any people. Like all sodomy laws (which 18 U.S.
states still have), the mere existence of Puerto Rico’s sodomy law is a
threat to lesbians and gay men, as it can be used to intimidate them and deny
them other legal rights. But Puerto Rico’s law has also been a more direct
threat in recent years. Rev. Margarita Sanchez, the lead plaintiff in the ACLU’s
lawsuit challenging the sodomy statute, was threatened with arrest while
testifying before Puerto Rico’s legislature. Just weeks later, a top Puerto
Rico Justice Department official announced that the government would prosecute
people under the sodomy law if they had enough evidence for conviction. In an
unrelated case in 1999 involving domestic violence between a gay couple, an
appeals court ruled that Puerto Rico’s law protecting people from domestic
violence cannot apply to lesbians and gay men, since the very nature of their
relationships is criminal under current law.
Legal Claims
The ACLU filed a lawsuit in Puerto Rico Superior Court on behalf of
Sanchez, five other lesbians and gay men, and the ACLU’s straight and gay
members in Puerto Rico. The lawsuit seeks to strike down the sodomy statute
under both the U.S. Constitution and Puerto Rico’s Constitution. In
particular, the ACLU asserts that:
- The sodomy law violates citizens’ equal protection and privacy rights
guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution by criminalizing private,
non-commercial consensual intimacy between adults.
- The law violates the Puerto Rico Constitution’s explicit privacy
guarantees, which go much further than the federal Constitution as a
result of what the ACLU says is a "societal decision" Puerto
Rico intentionally made to clearly recognize individuals’ privacy
rights.
Broad National Implications
In 1961, all 50 states and Puerto Rico had sodomy laws. Since then, most
states have either voluntarily repealed the laws or courts have found them
unconstitutional. In recent years, courts in Montana, Kentucky and Georgia
have all struck down those state’s sodomy laws.
Puerto Rico’s sodomy law is particularly important to the broader
struggle against anti-gay sodomy laws in part because it clearly illustrate
how sodomy laws are used to silence and intimidate lesbians or gay men, or
even to directly discriminate against them.
The legal battle over Puerto Rico’s sodomy law also crystallizes a
paradox with national and international implications. Puerto Rican culture is,
in many ways, hostile to lesbians and gay men. But at the same time, Puerto
Rico has a long-standing cultural commitment to individual privacy. Both of
these cultural leanings are common in many Latino communities in the U.S. and
abroad. Legal and political debate about the sodomy law forces this paradox to
the surface, and causes people within these cultures to more clearly examine
lesbian and gay equality in the context of their broader beliefs.
Eric Ferrero, Public Education Director
The American Civil Liberties Union
Lesbian and Gay Rights Project/AIDS Project
125 Broad St., 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004-2400
Tel: 212-549-2568; Fax: 212-549-2650
eferrero@aclu.org
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