[News Article: Anti-Gay Law Unconstituional] Part: 1 of 4
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;U.S. judge rules
state anti-gay law
unconstitutional
By JACK BOOTH
Staff Writr-
Go,
..rSee GAY a Page 7
GAY - From Page One -
The ruling was praised as an act
of "genius" by Baker, who. said
there now is no excuse for the Dal-
las Police Department not to hire
gays-.
Police Chief Billy Prince dis-
agreed, however. "I would not will- -
ingly hire an avowed homoseual to
. be a police ofirn," he said.
Gay groups praised the judge's
opnix as a "courageous" decision
that lifts the criminal image gays
had as a result of the law.
"I think it's time to reoognile that
the days of homosexuals being
treated as secd-class w in
Texas are over," M. Robert Schwab,
president of the Texas Human
Rights Foundation, said after the
dso was annonc" .
The statute that was overturned
was part of a 1974 comprehensive
reform of the state's criminal laws.
The statute made it a misdemeanr-U
:- -
DnaM Baker
for people of the samese to engage
in oral or anal sex acts, and it set-a
fine of up to $200.
Since the law did not ben a
acts between adults of the opposite
se, Bucbmeyer ruled that the stat-
ute violated conutiaoal rights to
privacy knd protection of the law
that are afforded to hetmrn-aak
"This statute makes crmaas ors
of more than 700,000 izvduals in
Texas who are hnmals. al-
though they did not ch be to be
and who engage in private nal
conduct with other consenting
adults," the judge wrote.
If the law were not struck d wn.
he said, "the state wul have the
same power to intrude into the pri-
vate lives and bedrooro of he -
sexuals, and regulate the intjate
sexual relationships of married c-
pes and single males and female"
The suit was filed agairnt every
district, county and cty at r ney m
Texas, and uchmeyer said o tofa9
eqGA federal judge Tuesday strck down a Tex-
as law that made homosexual conduct illegal,
evenbehind dosed door.
The ruling by. U. & District Judge Jerry.
Mofhmeyer f Dallas was hailed as a landmark
decalon by gay rights groups, who said it was
the first time a federal court in the United States
has overturned a state homexuality law on con-
atituticoal grognd.
In a. detailed 53-page opinion, Buckmeyer
upheld almost every contention made by Donald
F. Baer, the 35-year-old president of the Dalas
Gay Alliance, who claimed in a 1979 lawsuit that
Article 21.06 of the Texas Penal Code was illegal
biea it violated.his constitutional rights to pri-
vary and equal application of the law.t
F.
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Booth, Jack. [News Article: Anti-Gay Law Unconstituional], clipping, August 18, 1982; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc804583/m1/1/?q=%22%22~1: accessed June 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.