LA Supreme Court
Upholds 195-Year Old Sex Ban

Defying the national trend overturning laws that criminalize private consensual sex between adults, the Louisiana Supreme Court has upheld the state's "crime against nature" statute that carries penalties of up to five years in prison, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said recently.

"This decision represents a serious abdication of the court's responsibility to impose constitutional standards, and its reasoning is intellectually dishonest," said Lambda Staff Attorney Stephen R. Scarborough, author of Lambda's amicus brief in the New Orleans case.

Writing for the 5-2 majority, Judge Chet Traylor wrote, "Simply put, commission of what the Legislature determines as an immoral act, even if consensual and private, is an injury against society itself." The decision was issued late Thurs., July 6.

The court relied on the 1986 United States Supreme Court ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick, upholding Georgia's sodomy law. But, that decision has been widely criticized and even rejected by Georgia's own top court, which overturned the state sodomy law in 1998.

A Texas appeals court in June found that the Texas sodomy law violated the state's constitution in a case brought by Lambda; the organization continues a legal challenge to the Arkansas sodomy law, having already helped overturn similar laws in Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Only 18 states and Puerto Rico still have sodomy laws on the books.

Scarborough, who helped defeat the Georgia law as an unconstitutional privacy invasion, noted that such laws often are used to discriminate against Lesbians and Gay men in employment, housing and child custody.

The Louisiana ruling concludes four separate cases involving the 195-year old law that bans private consensual oral and anal sex between partners of the same or different sex. Lambda filed an amicus brief in one of those cases, Smith v. State, on behalf of religious groups and clergy opposed to criminalizing such acts in the name of public morality.

"The Court declined to second guess the legislature's determination of what is constitutional," said Lambda Legal Director Beatrice Dohrn. "While that logic defies the American principle of having checks and balances, it also obligates the citizens of Louisiana to make sure that their representatives move to end this gross invasion of their privacy."

Lambda joined the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project in committing to end laws like Louisiana's. "This decision is obviously disappointing, but we have never looked at eliminating sodomy laws as short-term work," said Michael Adams, associate director of the ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.

Lambda Cooperating Attorney Jeffrey Reader, a solo-practitioner from New Orleans, assisted in Lambda's friend-of-the-court brief.

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Actress & Activist Kathy Najimy
to Speak at 2000 Dallas-Ft. Worth
Black Tie Dinner

The Dallas-Fort Worth Black Tie Dinner Committee announced recently that award-winning actress and activist, Kathy Najimy, is scheduled to be the featured speaker at this year's dinner. The event, a fundraiser for the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and local Gay- and Lesbian-supportive organizations, will take place on Sat., Sept. 23, at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel.

A multi-talented actress with a remarkable range of talents and scope of emotion, Najimy has enchanted film, television and stage audiences for years with her captivating performances. She currently provides the voice of "Peggy Hill" on the Emmy Award-winning FOX program King of the Hill and recently starred as Olive opposite Kirstie Alley in the NBC comedy Veronica's Closet. Her recent body of work also includes a stage performance in The Vagina Monologues and a role in HBO's If These Walls Could Talk II with Sharon Stone and Ellen DeGeneres.

Najimy has garnered multiple awards. Her 1996 HBO version of The Kathy and Mo Show entitled Kathy and Mo: The Dark Side won Cable Ace Awards for both her roles as actor and executive producer of the special. In addition, the original Kathy and Mo Show: Parallel Lives, in which she starred and wrote, garnered her two Cable Ace Awards for the special and an Obie Award for the off-Broadway stage production. Najimy's portrayal of Sister Mary Patrick in the blockbuster hit Sister Act won her an American Comedy Award.

Najimy has received numerous honors and accolades for her support of Gay/Lesbian, women and animal rights. Most recently, she performed with Melissa Etheridge, Ellen DeGeneres, Garth Brooks, and Tipper Gore at the 2000 Equality Rocks Concert in Washington, D.C. and spoke at the March on Washington this year and in 1993. Last year, she served as the Grand Marshal of the Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade in Los Angeles.

For her 15 years of AIDS activism, Najimy has been honored with the L.A. Shanti's Founder Award, as well as the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center's Distinguished Achievement Award. In addition, she has lent her support to a variety of worthy organizations, such as GLAAD, Human Rights Campaign Fund, Broadway Cares, Equity Fights AIDS, AMFAR, Planned Parenthood, Voters for Choice, NARAL and PETA.

The Black Tie Dinner was begun in Dallas in 1982 to help support the Human Rights Campaign Fund. One hundred forty guests attended the first dinner, which raised some $6,000. Since that time, a number of Gay, Lesbian and AIDS service organizations have been added as beneficiaries to support local non-profit organizations. Last year, an unprecedented 3,200 people attended the dinner, resulting in a distribution of $653,581.38 to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and local beneficiaries. To date, the event has raised more than $3.7 million.

Tickets for the Dinner, sold by tables of 10, are now on sale. Provided there is not a sell-out as in 1999, individual tickets sales will follow. For more information about ticket sales, please visit the Web site at blacktie-dfw.org or contact Scott Dinsmore at 972.733.9200, ext. 5.