Posted on 10/26/2009 1:09:41 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
A panel of legal scholars has suggested that Congress remove sodomy as a crime punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a recommendation that could boost efforts to end a ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military.
The Commission on Military Justice recommended that Article 125, which deals with sodomy, be repealed, arguing that “most acts of consensual sodomy committed by consenting military personnel are not prosecuted, creating a perception that prosecution of this sexual behavior is arbitrary.”
In its report — dated October 2009 — the commission suggested several changes be made to the UCMJ, including a requirement that law enforcement officials videotape interrogations. The panel’s discussion of Article 125 has gotten the attention of “don’t ask, don’t tell” opponents.
“Public opinion about private, consensual sexual conduct has shifted dramatically since the military sodomy ban was written into law almost a hundred years ago,” according to Nathaniel Frank, a senior research fellow at the Palm Center, a University of California, Santa Barbara, research institute focusing on gays and the military.
“To say that gays should be banned from the military for this outdated reason makes no sense,” Frank was quoted as saying in a center news release.
It’s the second time the commission recommended repealing the law, the first time was in 2001.
Sodomy is defined in the Manual for Courts-Martial as “unnatural copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex.” Under the UCMJ, sodomy — which includes oral sex — is considered a criminal act, even among consenting adults and married couples.
“The vast majority of heterosexuals engage in sodomy as defined in Article 125 and the Manual for Courts-Martial,” said Kevin Nix, a spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. The organization strongly opposes both “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the sodomy law.
“In fact, it appears that the majority of people prosecuted under Article 125 are straight,” Nix said in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes. He described the law as “a legal anachronism” and said it was selectively enforced.
A repeal of the sodomy law is long overdue, according to Walter T. Cox, who heads the military justice panel. Cox is a former chief justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.
“In my judgment, it causes people to disrespect the law when you have a law in place that people don’t agree with and don’t obey,” Cox said in a telephone interview.
Pointing to the fact that several changes recently have been made to Article 120 of the UCMJ in regard to prosecution of rape, sexual assault and other sexual misconduct, the panel argues, “there is no need for a separate provision making sodomy a military crime.”
“You’re not giving anything away by repealing [Article 125],” Cox said.
In its report, the commission also mentioned a 2003 Supreme Court ruling — Lawrence vs. Texas — that found a Texas law that prohibited sexual acts between same-sex couples was unconstitutional. Because of the ruling, the commission argues, “the provision of Article 125 that punishes consensual sodomy is in doubt.”
The report is sponsored by the National Institute for Military Justice and the American Bar Association.
Any changes to the UCMJ have to be approved by Congress and signed into law by executive order.
Cox said he’s unsure if Article 125 will be repealed.
“The Department of Defense traditionally does not like change. Their mantra is ‘if it’s not broke don’t fix it,’ ” he said.
Six, Six and a Kick, probably drawing a PTSD disabilty now.
Actually, it is when it can be proven IOW the rules of evidence in the UCMJ. When it is prosecuted, it's usually to the overwhelming approval of the personnel in the command!
During my career, I saw 1 1Lt; 3 captains; 1 Lt Colonel; 1 Colonel; and a Lieutenant General go down in flames for it!
Maybe, but I think it’s more to not end up putting married couples in jail for engaging in oral sex.
"Person" here means "human person," right? I ask for purely hypothetical reasons, of course...
http://www.nimj.org/documents/NIMJ_Annual_Report%20_2006.pdf
From the site:
NIMJ . . . was able to use unexpected, but timely, opportunities to advance military justice, largely due to the generous funding provided this past year by the(George Soros) Open Society Institute (OSI)
NIMJ drafted and submitted Congressional correspondence opposing the proposed Graham Amendment, which as passed, strips courts of jurisdiction to consider habeas proceedings brought by detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The list goes on.
It sounds so romantic when you put it that way.
I've personally prosecuted more than that for adultery. Granted, almost always the affair involves an officer and his/her subordinate, which is the underlying predicate for the prosecution. But, adultery is always one of the specifications charged.
I was the regular victim of a cute little chinese girl in a pair of bikini panties...
How do they know that "a vast majority of heterosexuals engage in sodomy"? Are they asking? or are the heterosexuals telling?
These freaks want to destroy the US military, and will employ any means available.
That, and some of them enjoy buggery.
-- Thomas Jefferson
A pal of mine from Texas, in my Squad, after a trip through, "Give Us twenty-five years and they all look like us." Went Asiatic, not hard to do.
“Panel urges ending UCMJ’s sodomy ban”
-because nothing is more important to military readiness, combat effectiveness, power projection and preservation of our Republic than sodomy in the military. Is that about it?
Sickening.
Well, that, the chow and the great fitting uniforms.
So is cussing in front of minors. The UCMJ is full of mines, and has to be navigated with caution.
There. Fixed it.
Like foxes and snakes circling the hen house, the perverts are relentless in their effort to turn the schools, military and everything else into a meat market for perverts to prey on the fresh meat.
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I doubt that Nathaniel Frank, a senior research fellow at the Palm Center, a University of California, Santa Barbara, research institute has ever served a day in any military branch.
Therefore, like Obama, he doesn’t know what he is talking about when it comes to military life.
Me, I am a 23 year veteran
Article 125 is going down.
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