Date: Mon, 12 Dec 1994 16:15:08 -0500 From: David B. O'Donnell To: Multiple recipients of list GLB-NEWS Subject: Ruling in Tennessee Sodomy challenge [ Send all responses to ATHONK@delphi.com only. Any responses to the list or list-owners will be returned to you. ] Reported by XENOGENY Nashville g/l/b weekly newspaper (ph. 615-228-6572, fax 615-227-3308, email ATHONK@delphi.com) Gay and lesbian plaintiffs win battle in challenge to Tennessee's sodomy law by Kenneth Athon (NASHVILLE, TN - December 7, 1994) Davidson County Circuit Judge Walter Kurtz has ruled in a memorandum opinion that the State of Tennessee has no right to prohibit private sexual expression, including homosexual acts, between consenting adults, solely because the behavior may not conform to moral standards of the majority. In so ruling, Judge Kurtz denied the state's request to summarily dismiss the lawsuit and thereby ratify the constitutionality of the state's Homosexual Acts Statute. The ruling came December 7 in a test case brought by six gay and lesbian plaintiffs who argued that the law is unconstitutional. The plaintiffs claimed that the law denied them equal protection and that their professional licenses, their jobs and their residential leases were endangered because the Homosexual Acts Statute brands their sexual behavior as criminal. The gay and lesbian plaintiffs can now ask the court for a final judgement in their favor or the parties can proceed to trial early next year. Abby Rubenfeld, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, told XENOGENY, "Originally we thought we would want our day in court, to let the court see the plaintiffs and hear our expert witnesses, but it would seem like a waste of the court's time to try the case now." Judge Kurtz noted in his opinion that the State had failed to show sufficient reason for government to interfere in private sex acts; in other words, the State failed to produce any hard evidence. In fact, the State allowed all pre-hearing deadlines to pass without presenting any evidence or any witnesses for their side.