An Expert Look At The Law

BY BRIAN CHASE

So, what kind of cases does Lambda Legal work on?

Simply put, Lambda Legal works on cases that change laws that impact LGBT people in America and people living with HIV. By changing the law, we also change the way people talk about our lives.

We change the law by representing people like Tyron Garner and John Lawrence. In 1998, Lawrence and Garner were arrested in Lawrence's home and jailed overnight after the police, who were investigating a false gun complaint, entered the home unannounced and found the men having sex. Lawrence and Garner were convicted of violating Texas's “Homosexual Conduct” law, which made it a crime for two men to have oral or anal sex, even though it was perfectly legal for straight couples to engage in the exact same sexual activities. Lambda Legal quickly responded to represent Lawrence and Garner. We sought to overturn their criminal convictions (which would have required them to register as “sex offenders” in several states) and to have Texas's law declared unconstitutional. Finally, in 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the “Homosexual Conduct” law and established that lesbians and gay men have the same fundamental right to private sexual intimacy that heterosexual Americans enjoy.

LGBT people living in the 13 states (and Puerto Rico) where sodomy laws remained on the books in 2003 felt the results of the decision most directly. Although arrest and prosecution for consensual adult sex were rare, they did occur, and the fact that such laws existed shaped people's lives in devastating ways. Millions of people were liberated from the fear of being arrested and sent to jail simply for making love.

The day before the Lawrence decision, we could be considered probable criminals; the day after, we could not. Public discourse was immediately affected—no longer was it possible to argue that talking about LGBT issues was talking about breaking the law.

That's nice, but what does getting rid of anti-LGBT laws in the South have to do with California?

Cases like Lawrence help all of us— wherever we live—by establishing rights at the federal level. Every time the U.S. Supreme Court says that it is unconstitutional for the government to single out LGBT people for unfavorable treatment, it brings us closer to a day when neither state governments nor Congress can treat us as anything less than equal members of society.

Groundbreaking decisions like Lawrence can also guide courts looking at other issues relevant to LGBT equality. Although the Court in Lawrence specifically noted that the decision was not about marriage, numerous courts since then—including the high court of Massachusetts—have relied on its reasoning when deciding that laws excluding same-sex couples from marriage are unconstitutional. The Superior Court in San Francisco is one example. Assessing California's law limiting marriage just to heterosexual couples, Judge Richard Kramer studied Lawrence and concluded, “same-sex marriage cannot be prohibited solely because California has always done so before.” When the California Supreme Court heard oral arguments in In re Marriage Cases on Mar. 4, 2008, the justices asked many questions about what Lawrence has taught us about basic constitutional rights, and about what equal liberty requires when the majority withholds those rights only from gay and lesbian couples.

Not every case Lambda works on makes history the way Lawrence did. But, every case does bring us closer to our eventual goal, the day when LGBT people in California and across the nation are treated as fully equal to our heterosexual friends and neighbors.

Do you have a legal puzzler you’d like to see answered in print by a Lambda Legal attorney? Call the Legal Help Desk at 866/542-8336. Confidential inquiries for legal information also welcome.