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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1996)
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Scott Bottaro H - 234-1887 W - 287-9370 Bridgetown Realty The Linus Pauling Memorial Lecture Dr. Stephen HAWKING Life in the Universe 7:30 pm, Tuesday April 16th at Univ. of Portland, Chiles Center A uthor o f the best-selling b o o k A B rief History o f Time, and know n for his pioneering w ork on the theory o f black holes, H aw k in g holds the L ucasian C h air o f M athem atics at C am bridge U niversity, a position previously held by S ir Isaac N ew ton. T w o-tim e N obel Prize W in n er Dr. L inus P auling w as bom , raised and educated in O regon. P auling w as recently ranked by a leading B ritish science jo u rn al as o n e o f the tw enty greatest scientists in all history. _______________ Funds raised are dedicated to the renovation of* Pauling's boyhood home, located in Portland. ,Order Your Tickets Today Phone FASTIXX at 224-8499 (o u ts id e P o rtla n d 8 0 0 -9 9 2 -8 4 9 9 ) Co-sponsored by: Oregon Public Broadcasting, University of Portland, Our Town, and Computer Hits. Special thanks to Just Out. Georgia Supreme Court upholds sodomy law; federal appeals court vacates landmark gay association ruling T by Richard Shumate T Christensen and his attorneys argued that the he Georgia Supreme Court on March sodomy law violated the Georgia Constitution’s 11 turned back a legal challenge to the right to privacy and that his conviction for merely state’s sodomy law, saying the statute discussing sodomy with another consenting adult was constitutional and served a com also violated his free speech rights. pelling state interest in furthering the They noted that the suggested sex act was to public’s “moral welfare.” have taken place behind closed doors in a hotel, not And the bad news for gays and lesbians in in the public areas of the rest area. And they also Georgia didn’t stop there. Three days earlier the argued that the law, which in Georgia applies to 11th U.S. Circuit Court o f Appeals in Atlanta voted heterosexuals engaging in oral or anal sex as well as to vacate a landmark December decision by a three- gay men and lesbians, is unfairly enforced. A lower judge panel that held that gays and lesbians have a state court in another case has held that the law can’t constitutionally protected right to intimate associa be applied to consenting heterosexuals. tion. Now the full court, believed to be much more In a case involving Georgia’s sodomy statute, conservative than the panel that initially ruled in the case of Shahar vs. Bowers , will rehear the matter. the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1986 that the Frustrated by repeated failures to get the Georgia federal Constitution’s right of privacy does not prohibit states from outlawing consensual sodomy. Legislature to repeal the sodomy law, gay rights But like many other states, the privacy provisions in advocates had turned to the courts, hoping to dupli Georgia’s Constitution are stronger than those in the cate successes in three other Southern states— U.S. Constitution. Kentucky, Tennessee and Louisiana— where courts have recently struck down sodomy laws. Going into In fact, Georgia’s Supreme Court was the first state high court to set out a specific right to privacy, the case, the Georgia high court was seen as split between two judges who were sympathetic, two more than 60 years before the U.S. Supreme Court who were not and three did. ★ ★ Gay rights advocates swing votes. ★ / ' ★ had hoped the court would But the votes of the strike down the law based three swing judges, all ★ ★ on state not federal law. In o f whom are up for re- Ì > * \ the past three years the election in November, ★ ★ -, Kentucky Supreme Court were cast in favor of N ★ ★ and lower courts in Ten upholding the law, a 5- ★ ★ nessee and Louisiana have 2 majority. invalidated sodomy laws “We can only won In 1995 a federal appeals court based on the grounds of der if it was considered held that lesbian attorney Robin state privacy rights. too risky to overturn C h riste n se n ’s a tto r the sodomy law,” says Shahar o f Atlanta had a right to neys can ask the U.S. Su Larry Pellegrini, chair intimate association with her preme Court to reconsider of the lesbian and gay the ruling. Pellegrini says rights chapter of the partner, Fran Shahar. no decision has yet been Georgia chapter of the made as to whether that request will be made. American Civil Liberties Union, which helped push In the case of Shahar vs. Bowers the 11th U.S. the challenge through the courts. “It would add insult to injury to find out we were a political Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request by Geor sacrificial lamb again.” gia Attorney General Michael Bowers to hear the case “en banc,” which means all 12 judges who sit Perhaps the only bright spot for gay rights advo on the court will make the final decision. cates was a blistering and eloquent dissent to the decision by Justice Leah Sears, who has been men In December 1995 a panel o f three appellate tioned as a possible future appointee to the U.S. court judges held that lesbian attorney Robin Shahar Supreme Court. o f Atlanta had a right to intimate association with her partner, Fran Shahar. The judges ordered a trial “No significant state interest can justify the court to determine if Bowers violated that right in legislation o f norms simply because a particular 1991 when he rescinded a job offer to Robin Shahar belief is followed by a majority,” Sears wrote. “ By after discovering that the Shahars were planning a upholding the sodomy statutes on public morality religious commitment ceremony. The panel also grounds, the majority opinion makes the right to privacy wholly dependent upon [majority] ap said the trial court would have to use a strict legal standard that would have made the case difficult for proval— a result that has absolutely no place what soever in constitutional jurisprudence.” Bowers to win. Sears and Justice Carol Hunstein, who are the The ruling marked the first time that a federal only women on the court, voted to overturn the appeals court has ever found a right to intimate sodomy law as a violation o f the right to privacy association for gay men and lesbians, a potentially guaranteed in the Georgia Constitution. All five landmark decision. men on the court voted to uphold it. While it is unusual for an appeals court to vote to hear a case “en banc,” Shahar and her attorneys say The test case involved L. Chris Christensen, they were not surprised by the ruling, given the who was convicted by a jury on the charge of solicitation of sodomy and sentenced to one year of controversial nature o f the case. probation. However, involving more judges in the decision will change the political mix in a case that carries the He had been approached at an Interstate high potential for political explosion. The full 11th U.S. way rest area by an undercover police officer and Circuit Court contains a majority of judges ap agreed to accompany the officer to a nearby hotel for pointed by Presidents Reagan and Bush, while the oral sex. The agreement involved no exchange of panel that ruled in Shahar’s favor was made up of money, and Christensen was arrested before any judges appointed by Presidents Carter and Johnson. sexual contact took place. The officer was in the rest No matter how the appeals court rules, the effect area as part o f a sting operation launched by the may be minor. Both sides have vowed to take this Rockdale County S h eriffs Department after it re case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. ceived complaints from men who said they had been approached by other men looking for sex.