From: KEVYN JACOBS <[email-masked]>

8/12/90

Editor:

     I was disappointed, but certainly not surprised, to read in the editorial
 section of Friday's Mercury ("Law obstructs AIDS prevention") that the Kansas
 Department of Corrections continues to deny inmates of Kansas prisons accesss
 to condoms in order t stop the spread of AIDS. The reason given: because sodomy
 (and adultery) between consenting adults is a crime in Kansas, providing
 condoms would encourage sodomy and adultery, and thus make the Department of
 Corrections a party to 'crimes against the stat.'
     As the editorial pointed out, whether or not consensual sodmy and adultery
 are legal, same-sex inmates often do have sexual relations. It is well-known
 that many otherwise heterosexual males will resort to homosexual behavior when
 placed in surroundins that preclude female contact for long periods of time, as
 is the case in a prison situation. Situational homosexuality is a normal
 function of human behavior in such situations, and for the state to call normal
 behavior a "crime against the state" is absrd.
     Obviously, the Department of Correction's hands are tied. They cannot work
 to halt the spread of AIDS without violating existing laws, and to ask the
 Department of Corrections to violate the law, even to save lives, is wrong.  In
 that case, the answerlies with our legislators: laws governing the sexual
 behavior of consenting adults in private must be repealed, as several other
 states have done.
      I have in the past written to legislators, asking about the possibility of
 getting KS Statute 21-3505 (which makes consensual sodomy a class B misdemeanor
 offense) repealed. The attitude I ran up against was that we shouldn't call to
 much attention to the isssue.  For example, in a letter to me in May,
 Representative Sheila Hochhauser wrote, "....I am concerned that if we bring up
 this issue, and work for repeal, it will cause prosecutors to become more
 active in prosecuting consensual sodomy." She went on to state that the real
 threat right now is AIDS, and pledges to continue working for better AIDS
 legislation.
     I submit that now, in the case of condoms for inmates, the two issues
 become intertwined and that we cannot separate them any longer.  We need our
 legislators' support in fighting AIDS, and when existing laws promote the
 spread of AIDS, then we need t set aside our prejudices and take action to stop
 that spread.

Kevyn D. Jacobs

811 Fremont #5
Manhattan KS, 66502-5867
(913) 539-3113 (work phone)

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Reprinted with permission of the author