 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 19, 2003 When consenting adults are alone in the privacy of a bedroom, the last thing they expect is a visit from the police. Yet that is exactly what happened to John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner on the night of September 17, 1998. Harris County Deputy Sheriffs burst into a Houston apartment, handcuffed Lawrence and Garner, dragged them to the station house, and charged them with a state crime: having sex. Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons has now joined a coalition of religious organizations in cosigning a brief to be submitted to the US Supreme Court. The brief urges the court to reverse a controversial ruling by the Texas Supreme Court against Lawrence and Garner. The state court invoked the moral views of religious bodies in support of the law, even though many religious bodies in the United States oppose laws that criminalize private sexual conduct between consenting adults. In response, the religious coalition's brief observes, "A number of these religious bodies believe that homosexual conduct is not consistent with their religious and moral teachings, but nevertheless believe that laws subjecting such conduct to criminal sanctions are neither morally required nor morally justified." "I have reviewed the brief and was quite enthusiastic about it," says Affirmation Executive Director Scott MacKay. "We join a long list of gay religious affiliated organizations and have decided to give them our full support." |
Tyron Garner, right, and John Lawrence, left, with their lawyer, Suzanne Goldberg, centerwww.affirmation.org