Posted on 09/14/2006 7:56:42 AM PDT by Borges
HOUSTON -- Tyron Garner, one of two men whose 1998 arrests led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down bans on sodomy, has died, according to a spokesman for the legal firm that represented him.
Garner, 39, died early Monday at a Houston hospital, said Mark Roy, a spokesman for Lambda Legal in New York City. Garner had been suffering from meningitis and had been in his brother's care for the past six months.
"Over the last few months, he lost the use of his legs from meningitis," Roy told The Associated Press.
Garner and John Lawrence were arrested after police -- sent by a bogus report of an armed intruder -- burst into Lawrence's apartment and found the two engaged in consensual sex. They were jailed overnight and charged with breaking Texas' Homosexual Conduct Law, which banned oral and anal sex between people of the same gender.
In its landmark June 2003 ruling, the Supreme Court said that what gay men and women do in the privacy of their bedrooms is their business and not the government's.
The 6-3 decision invalidated laws in Texas and 12 other states. It also galvanized both sides in an ongoing national debate over whether homosexuals are entitled to the same rights as heterosexuals when it comes to marriage and adoption.
"Because Tyrone Garner and John Lawrence had the courage to challenge homophobic sodomy laws, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that love, sexuality and family play the same role in gay people's lives as they do for everyone else. That's a colossal legacy and one for which his community will forever be thankful," Lambda Legal's executive director Kevin Cathcart said in a statement.
Garner, who sold barbecue from a street stand, told the Houston Chronicle in 2004 that it was hard to endure the loss of his privacy.
"I didn't enjoy being outed with my mugshot on TV," he said. "It was degrading to me."
But the result was worth it, he said.
"I don't really want to be a hero," Garner said. "But I want to tell other gay people 'Be who you are, and don't be afraid."'
May God have mercy on his soul!
you could read post 13.
A states' police power allows them to write laws concerning the health and safety of its citizens. This is not a federal issue.
Thank you
These guys are gay??
Of course states have the power to do lots of things. They should not, however, be in the business of regulating the ordinary "health and safety" of the citizenry.
Not everything that's a bad idea needs to be illegal. Just as not everything that's a good idea needs to be required.
I agree. But homosexual sodomy does pose a health risk for the citizens of a state and a financial burden. To say that the state is powerless to prevent the spread of a lethal disease because it may violate a right to privacy is ludicrous.
May I print counterfeit money in the privacy of my own home? Manufacture (not sell or use) methamphetamine in the privacy of my own home?
The list, of course, goes on.
There is a thing called a "compelling state interest" that allows five U.S. Supreme Court justices to decide what a "fundamental" right is, and whether a state law affecting that "right" is in the state's interest, and whether it is "compelling" or not.
In my opinion, that should be the states' decision.
oh, goody. he won the right for men to die young from an aids related death. whoopi
Hey, give it a rest. I am a Christian and I opposed the Supreme Court ruling of which this fellow was a part, but remarks like that accomplish nothing. The fellow died a slow and painful death, so let's not quip about it.
Hey, give it a rest. I am a Christian and I opposed the Supreme Court ruling of which this fellow was a part, but remarks like that accomplish nothing. The fellow died a slow and painful death, so let's not quip about it.
Not to me.
Yes, the caller was Tyrone's boyfriend (who also had an assault case against Tyrone but the boyfriend was murdered in an unsolved assault case before Tyrone's assault charge came to trial).
It appears it posed a risk for Tyrone.
How about laws against prostitution and consensual "incest" between parties over 18 (including adopted, non-blood relation siblings)?
The activist supreme court did NOT legalize all sexual acts between consenting adults in private.
Even dildos are still illegal in Texas (and posession of 5 or 6 of them is listed as "intent to sell").
So? Maybe he ate too much fried food, too. I don't care how much he swings his fist until it reaches my nose.
Men committed indecent acts with other men,and *RECEIVED IN THEMSELVES* the due penalty for their perversion
God's taking care of it!
The force of law, IMHO, is about settling conflicts between rights. People should have the right to do whatever they wish until they impact the rights of another, then the state intervenes to decide who's rights win.
Prostitution is a classic. We pretend to outlaw it to feel better about public morality, but it is foolish to believe that it matters.
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