Last edited: November 15, 2003


Arizona Gay Reps Target Sodomy Law

Planet Out, Monday April 26, 1998

Arizona's out lawmakers team up in a move to repeal the state's statutes forbidding infamous sex acts and "notorious cohabitation."

Arizona's House of Representatives voted April 22 to repeal Arizona's archaic laws dealing with sodomy and cohabitation, while expanding the protections under the state's domestic violence laws to include same-gender couples who live together. SB 1396 as amended was approved by voice vote when the bill was before the House Committee of the Whole (COW). The series of votes was seen as a joint victory for amendment authors openly gay state Representatives Ken Cheuvront (D-Phoenix) and Steve May (R-Phoenix), who called it "a great day for freedom in Arizona."

Cheuvront and May offered three amendments to SB 1396, a bill dealing with the state's criminal code. The three proposed amendments would repeal state laws dealing with "open and notorious cohabitation or adultery," "crimes against nature" and "lewd and lascivious acts." Repeal would only remove sanctions against behavior that is private, noncommercial and consensual. According to Cheuvront, under these archaic laws "most sex in Arizona is illegal," including private consensual acts of intimacy between heterosexual couples, even if married. Cheuvront added that these laws (under which violations are misdemeanors) had not been enforced in more than 30 years. The three amendments also included a proposal to expand protections under the state's domestic violence laws to same-sex couples who live together.

Conservative members of the House, led by the anti-gay Representative Karen Johnson (R-Mesa), challenged the three amendments and were defeated by voice vote and division of the House. A roll call vote was then called on three parliamentary motions offered by opponents of the amendments. Representative Mike Gardner (R-Tempe) made a motion to remove Cheuvront's amendment from the bill; that motion failed by a 29 - 25 vote. Representatives Jean McGrath (R-Glendale) and Laura Knaperek (R-Tempe) offered motions to remove May's amendments; both motions were defeated, by votes of 28 - 28 and 29 - 26 respectively.

"The votes show that we have a majority in the Legislature who supports getting rid of the state's archaic laws," Cheuvront said. Johnson, who had during this session offered bills banning both gay and lesbian adoptions and the extension of medical benefits to the domestic partners of government employees, called the House votes "a dangerous, cultural shift in our society," and "another statement that will move us away from objective standards of right and wrong."

Gay and lesbian rights supporters in the state were elated over the House vote. Bill MacDonald, Co-Chair of the Arizona Human Rights Fund (AHRF), in a written statement said, "This vote is clear evidence that the majority of the House of Representatives agrees with AHRF's long-standing position that government has no business policing the private lives and the private conduct of consenting adults. AHRF Co-Chair Amelia Craig Cramer added, "It would seem that the members of the legislature are coming to understand that these archaic laws represent an intrusion on the right to privacy, provided by the Arizona State Constitution, that there is no compelling state interest for these laws and that they serve no legitimate governmental interest."

SB 1396 awaits its third reading in the state House and if approved, it goes to the state Senate for its decision on the proposed changes. If the Senate votes to concur with the amendments, the bill will then go to final consideration in both chambers. However if, as state capital sources expect, the Senate refuses to go along with the amendments, the measure will go before a House/Senate conference committee, which would likely be dominated by social conservatives; that could spell a dire future for Cheuvront and May's amendments.


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