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Written by WiG
Feb 1, 2012
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is promoting the repeal of outdated laws but not the state's unconstitutional sodomy statute.
An LGBT civil rights group wants Kansas legislators to remove an unenforced and unconstitutional sodomy law from the state statutes.
The law, voided by a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision in a Texas case, makes consensual same-sex sex a crime.
The Kansas Equality Coalition is urging state lawmakers to strike the law, and a proposal for such is before the Kansas Senate Judiciary Committee, which is reviewing a bill amending state criminal statutes.
The group also has asked Republican Gov. Sam Brownback to seek the law’s repeal, but the administration has declined.
Brownback, earlier this year, released a list of 51 “out of date, unreasonable, and burdensome” laws to be repealed. That list did not include the law against consensual same-sex sex.
“We are angry and disappointed that Gov. Brownback has failed to keep his promise to repeal laws that are unreasonable. There is nothing more unreasonable than Sam Brownback’s preserving an unconstitutional law that’s used by government officials to harass gay and lesbian Kansans,” said KEC’s Thomas Witt. “The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that being gay or lesbian is not a crime, and Brownback’s announcement today is a gross act of disrespect to our nation’s Constitution, and to the thousands of gay and lesbian Kansans singled out by this unjust law.”
In the 2003 Lawrence vs. Texas case, a landmark ruling from the High Court, the majority held that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part of the liberty protected by substantive due process under the 14th Amendment.
