GRETNA, April 28, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The State of Louisiana until recently had a prohibition against sodomy as part of its crimes-against-nature law. An appeals court has upheld the decision by 24th Judicial District Judge Robert Murphy that the section of the crimes-against-nature law that prohibited sodomy and oral sex should be struck out of the statute.
This decision has annoyed homosexual activists who wanted the entire statute struck down. In 1996, the Louisiana Electorate of Gays and Lesbians, or LEGAL, sued the Jefferson Parish district attorney’s office claiming that the law was unconstitutional. Because of a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Louisiana law is not being enforced, but the group was not satisfied. They claimed that it was not sufficient for Murphy to only have removed 71 of the law’s 81 words pertaining to them and appealed.
Along with criminalizing consensual homosexual acts between adults, it also prohibited sex with animals, solicitation for oral and anal sex, and nonconsensual acts.
The statute still gives prosecutors authority to charge promoters of homosexuality and narcotics groups, two categories that were, until recently, considered closely linked.
With files from Times Picayune.