Testimony of
Jeff Coudriet
President
Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington
before the
Council of the District of Columbia
Committee on the Judiciary
Friday, January 29, 1993
Good morning. My name is Jeff Coudriet and I am the President of the Gay and Lesbian
Activists Alliance of Washington. I would like to thank Chairman Nathanson and all the
Members of the Committee on the Judiciary for allowing me this opportunity to testify
today in support of Council Bill 10-30, which would reform the D.C. sodomy statute.
GLAA has existed for over twenty one years, making it the oldest continually active Gay
and Lesbian civil rights group in the country. Too many of those years have been spent
working for the reform of this law.
Most citizens of the District of Columbia, indeed, most people in this country believe
that there are certain things that are no business of this or any government. In the
November Presidential election, the right to "choose" in reproductive rights was
soundly affirmed. On the District level, one of the most notable continuing battles with
Congress has been over whether the District was going to be allowed to use its own tax
dollars to provide abortions and abortion counseling to poor women in the District of
Columbia. The people of this city have fought the Congress and Republican Presidents time
and time again for the right to choose, because we believe that there is a realm of
personal privacy that this choice exists in. We believe that adult individuals are capable
of making certain choices in life without inappropriate and invasive governmental
meddling.
What consenting adults may do in their own bedrooms falls squarely in that very same
realm of personal privacy. One of my duties as President of GLAA is to educate people. I
have encountered hundreds of gasps of disbelief from non-gay people I have met at rallies,
meetings, parties, and just on the street handing out fliers, when I have told them that
the District of Columbia has a law on the books which makes any form of oral or anal sex a
felony, whether it is between gays or straights, married people or single people. If there
is a legitimate reason for this law being on the books in 1993, I would love to hear it.
Do any of the Councilmembers here today have an explanation as to why this is any of the
government’s business? Not many people in this city have much faith in the city
government here, and laws like this certainly don’t help the situation.
It is estimated that 93 percent of all adult Americans have engaged in one form of
sodomy or another. That undoubtedly includes 93 percent of the adult residents of this
city, if not more, 93 percent of Catholics, 93 percent of Jews, 93 percent of Muslims, and
93 percent Atheists and Agnostics, give or take a few percent here and there. This also
means that at least 12 of the current 13 Councilmembers have also engaged in sodomy. Out
of the mere handful of people here today who will testify against this bill, undoubtedly
93 percent of them probably have engaged in sodomy as well, or they’re lying.
From time to time in my work as a Gay activist, I’ve often thought to myself that
one day, non-gay people are really going to have to give the Gay and Lesbian community the
thanks that we deserve. The overwhelming majority of people who are considered felons
under this statute are not gay. The only reason why sodomy reform is a gay issue is
because this law, and laws like it around the country, are used to bash Gay and Lesbian
people, even when the law applies to both Gay and non-Gay people as is the case in
Washington, and it is used to keep us in our place. It is used to give a legal facade to
what is nothing but clear, unadulterated anti-Gay and anti-Lesbian bigotry.
Sodomy laws are used to keep Gays and Lesbians out of the military—we can’t
have a bunch of criminals there now can we, out of the teaching profession, out of raising
children—sometimes our own children even, and are used by right wing nuts in Congress
to fight against funding for AIDS educational materials and "obscene" works of
art. When Gays and Lesbians are treated as a criminal class, which is exactly how we are
treated in this city, and elsewhere, with this law still on the books—anything is
justifiable in the small minds of those who will try to beat us up, fire us, kick us out
of our houses, and even kill us, as was the case recently up in Adams Morgan. The sodomy
statute is the green light for people who hate. It is the Alpha and the Omega of anti-Gay
and -Lesbian oppression.
We, as a community, are grateful for the protection that we enjoy from our city’s
Human Rights Act, which protects the civil rights of Gays and Lesbians. But the spirit of
that law will not be fully realized until the sodomy statute is reformed. Gays and
Lesbians will never enjoy a status equal to that of all other citizens of the District of
Columbia until we are no longer considered a criminal class. This law must go. I am
calling upon all the Members of the City Council to reform this law and ensure that my
civil rights are protected, and are also not subjected to the whims of some kangaroo
plebescite held by loud and angry bigots.
In the last few days, I have had the misfortune of witnessing first hand the bigotry
that some people in this country, including some very powerful people, are capable of. As
a staff member in a Congressional office on Capitol Hill, I have had to answer phone calls
this week from a number of constituents who oppose President Clinton’s plans to stop
the witch hunting of Gays and Lesbians in the military. The ignorance and fear that these
people have demonstrated doesn’t anger me, it makes me pity them. But never once have
I shied away from calmly and politely explaining to these people how and why they are
wrong. If people don’t oppose bigotry on a regular basis, in their everyday lives,
then I truly believe that they allow it to continue. I hope that the Council will keep
this in mind.
The only bright and comforting note of this entire week has been the many fond
remembrances of Justice Thurgood Marshall. It’s almost as if he picked this week,
which has been filled with in-your-face hatred 24 hours a day on TV, that he chose to try
his final case. Thurgood Marshall, in the 1986 Bowers
v. Hardwick decision, voted to overturn the Georgia state sodomy law as an
unconstitutional violation of the right to privacy. This Wednesday after work I had the
opportunity to go over to the Supreme Court building and see Justice Marshall lying in
state. After 121ong years of Reaganism, I was heartened to see Americans there of all
colors, ages, genders, and yes even Gay and Lesbian Americans.
I challenge any resident of this city who opposes this reform effort to tell me why
Thurgood Marshall was mistaken in voting to overturn the Georgia state sodomy law or to
explain to me why they think he was wrong in believing that freedom, and dignity, and
equality were things that all Americans deserve to share in, including Gays and Lesbians.
As an American, I have been led to believe that freedom and equality is my birthright.
Thurgood Marshall worked to make that a reality for all Americans and I ask that this
Council do the same.
Finally, there is one provision of this very short and
simple bill which has caused some controversy and I would like to address that
controversy. Some of the Councilmembers have been threatened and intimated into believing
that this bill somehow lowers the age of consent in the District of Columbia. I am not a
lawyer, but I do know that it is a fact that for all other sexual offenses under the law
in D.C., the age of consent is 16, and this has been the case for at least 92 years. If
the age of consent for fornication is 16, then the age of consent must also be 16 for
sodomy. Considering that people can get legally married at 16, I think it would be
embarrassing, ridiculous and absurd to make it against the law for married people of that
age to be able to legally engage in fornication, but have to wait two years to legally
engage in sodomy. Having separate ages of consent in the District of Columbia would make
our city the laughingstock of the nation, and we can scarcely afford more of that right
now.
To have the age of consent be 18 for sodomy would forever enshrine an unfair "separate
and unequal" standard in the law and would further stigmatize the lives of
Gay and Lesbian teenagers. Considering the already unacceptably high percentage of teenage
suicides that are attempted by Gay and Lesbian teenagers, I personally would consider such
a Council action to be a contributing factor to some of those suicides and I would lobby
the Mayor to reject such an action. If it is ever the Council’s intention to raise
the age of consent in D.C. to 18 across the board, which is a deluded and confused idea to
begin with, then I suggest that the Council do so on its own bill, on its own time and
wasting its own breath. I haven’t worked this hard, for all this time, to see
"separate and unequal" become the law in the District of Columbia. I will
continue to work hard, and by any means necessary, to ensure that this does not happen.
Finally, in conclusion, the District of Columbia reformed this law over a decade ago.
It was Congress, in a fit of anti-Gay and -Lesbian hysteria, that overturned it. Few
communities in this city have suffered the anti-Home Rule wrath of Congress quite like the
Gay and Lesbian community has. I believe that we now have the opportunity to avoid
Congressional interference at this time and I strongly advise the Council to act promptly
and accordingly to remedy this matter once and for all.
Thank you once again Chairman Nathanson, and all the Members of the Committee.
