This is 2013, not 1953, right? It’s understandable if you’re as confused as we are about the century you’re in after learning that deputies in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana are — allegedly — targeting gay men and arresting them for hooking up in the privacy of their homes because of the state’s refusal to repeal its anti-sodomy laws which were deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court 10 years ago, reports The New Civil Rights Movement.
I mean, we’ve seen things on the streets in New Orleans that would surely make the heads of these deputies spin around, yet elsewhere in the Creole state, a dozen gay men have been arrested since 2011 by the Sheriff’s Office task force for merely discussing or agreeing to have consensual sex with an undercover agent, according to the Advocate. Read that carefully — consensual sex. This isn’t prostitution as no money ever changed hands and it’s not sex in a public place, it’s just consensual sex between two adults in the privacy of a home.
The Advocate offers a vivid depiction of the event that unfolded:
An undercover East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputy was staking out Manchac Park about 10 a.m. one day this month when a slow-moving sedan pulling into the parking lot caught his attention. The deputy parked alongside the 65-year-old driver and, after denying being a cop, began a casual conversation that was electronically monitored by a backup team nearby.
As the two men moved their chat to a picnic table, the deputy propositioned his target with “some drinks and some fun” back at his place, later inquiring whether the man had any condoms, according to court records. After following the deputy to a nearby apartment, the man was handcuffed and booked into Parish Prison on a single count of attempted crime against nature.
Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Casey Rayborn Hickshas denied deputies are misapplying the law, stating, “[The anti-sodomy law] is a law that is currently on the Louisiana books, and the sheriff is charged with enforcing the laws passed by our Louisiana Legislature. Whether the law is valid is something for the courts to determine, but the sheriff will enforce the laws that are enacted.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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Dakotahgeo
Seems as if Katrina didn’t do a good enough job! Pity! What will it take to drag these beachfront Hillbillies into the 18th Century?!? Damn!
Fidelio
Russia in our own back yard. Or backwoods. Sheriff’s office is, technically, not even denying it.
hyhybt
So… what happens after they’re arrested? Surely no prosecutor is going to touch something like this, nor if they did would it get anywhere with an even slightly competent judge. So it amounts to a surprising amount of effort for the amount of harassment he’s getting from it.
vklortho
Are there any consequences for enforcing an obviously unconstitutional law? Whenever this stuff goes to court will the people who got arrested for this just be let go or will the police department enforcing it and the lawmakers who refuse to take it off the books have to suffer at all for this?
Jeton Ademaj
one more reason that liberals should get far more comfortable with firearms. states that do this are very obviously pushing for Federal blowback, so that the rightwingers can get press that “Uncle Sam is now enforcing Sodomy at gun point!”
the Feds know this, and so they will take their loooong sweet time b4 they ever consider doing anything about any of these unconstitutional enforcements.
sangsue
@vklortho:
You’re talking about a state where the governor does exorcisms, Creationism is mandatory in school and I think you can be shot if you’re not Catholic under the stand your ground law.
Well maybe not the stand your ground thing, I was being facetious but it’s heavily Catholic and I’m sure abortion and birth control is illegal too.
FStratford
The silver lining is that jackass Jindal will never become president ever.
Jeton Ademaj
oops, i left out the main part. more right wingers r pushing for civil war. more left wingers r comfortable with that, assuming Big Brother will protect them.
this assumption is unspeakably delusional, cuz they WONT.
🙂
Sweet Boy
What can you expect from a state divided into parishes..and where most of family trees do not fork
MikeE
@Sweet Boy: trust me, there’s a LOT of forking going on….
Kangol
All to humiliate and degrade gay men, i.e., fellow human beings.
It should tell you everything about how psychologically sick this sheriff and the people that keep people this in office are.
Daniel-Reader
The men are being targeted based on their sexual orientation and arrested for exercising their constitutionally-protected First Amendment rights to free speech. Federal law supercedes state law. Every law enforcement official knows it. So since heterosexuals can hold these same conversations in public spaces and not be arrested, is this a hate crime targeting/harassing gay people, under the national hate crimes act? I remember that the feds had to take over the entire New Orleans police department not that long ago because of the crimes being committed by officers. Feel bad for officers who actually don’t do these kinds of things.
BTW, the ACLU of Louisiana is asking any men targeted by police in this manner in the state to contact them (http://www.laaclu.org/)
gppm1103
When they get inundated with lawsuits they will find something better to do.
Taliaferro
These laws, among others, are also still on the books in Louisiana – stealing crawfish, stealing an alligator, mocking a contestant in a boxing match, instructing a pizza delivery person to deliver a pizza to a friend without his or her knowing, robbing a bank and then shooting at the teller with a water pistol, biting someone with your natural teeth is “simple assault,” while biting someone with your false teeth is “aggravated assault, gargling in public, – need I go on?
Caliban
So far the District Attorney has refused to prosecute in ANY of these cases because he knows they’re unconstitutional.
In a way it would be better if he DID prosecute because then a JUDGE would say it’s unconstitutional and then this harassment would STOP.
Texasteacher
The fact that no lesbians were targeted shows that this is nothing more than straight men targeting gay men, because they think that men with men is icky. The sheriff is using public office to enforce private bias. He clearly needs to be out of a job. Unfortunately, the Baton Rouge District Attorney will at least have to start taking all cases from this sheriff with reservations about the veracity of their claims due to his willingness to pursue cases based on little more than his personal feelings.
Ogre Magi
Southern Rednecks really are the lowest form of human life
jeff4justice
Is it just me or did the Advocate (not the LGBT Advocate) news story not mention the Sheriff’s or arresting officers’ names at all?
hyhybt
@Ogre Magi: A lot of them are good people.
LubbockGayMale
Hey, they can’t abuse blacks anymore, so gays are now the target! And @hyhybt, a cop isn’t ‘good people’ if he can’t enforce active, valid laws..
hyhybt
@LubbockGayMale: Please read more carefully. The antecedent to “them” was very clearly “southern rednecks,” not “the police who did this.”
ParkerSparx
At #2 Fidelio- The sheriff is blaming the DA. The DA is blaming the sheriff. Sheriff Gautreaux will be “under the bus soon”.
There is a saying, “There’s stupid and then there’s LOUISIANA STUPID !!””
FYI: IBM is about to move to BR in a multi-million dollar deal. IBM gives benefits to domestic partners. Think this will affect the business deal ?
ParkerSparx
@Caliban:
That is only on these current cases. The DA has brought charges in the past. This has been going on for years.
Kangol
@LubbockGayMale:
What are you talking about? They abuse “blacks” all the time. Still. With impunity.
They can now do the same to white gay people, or gay people of any race or ethnicity. Apparently with impunity, until the federal government steps in and stops this hateful crap, which could mean the loss of a job and livelihood, children, denial of housing, you name it.
Louisiana like a number of US states still does not offer civil protections for LGBTQ people.
Kenny1948
I’m not surprised at all. Obviously Queerty has never spent time in the South. I live in Florida where they do exactly the same thing. Only here they avoid losing in court by excluding the “criem against nature” thing. They simply arrest you for ” Solicitation to commit Sexual Acts”. Yes they do it here. Even in Gay bars! Yet you rarely read about it, unless they do a big bust, and then it’s about gay men soliciting sex in a public place. A bar is a public place! So is a bathouse, a campground etc. If the public can enter, it’s a public place.
So just remember that when visiting Florida. In a place like Miami, it’s probably pretty safe. But in a place like where I live —- well that’s another story. You must have heard of Sheriff Grady Judd by now. He’s the Polk County Sheriff who would throw all of us in prison for life if he could! He doesnt’ even like the fact that people watch “filth” on the internet. He has actually gone after Craigs List, because they allow ads for escorts, and ” massage therapists” which he considers all to be perverts. If you are visiting any Southern state. Just remember, that hot number you invite to your hotel, could very well be an undercover cop!
Kenny1948
@Caliban: I’m not sure what world you live in. It sure isn’t the same one I do. I live in the South, and I know judges throw people in jail for solicitation all the time. Solicitation here, does not mean ” for money ” it simply means asking someone home to have sex!
GayTampaCowboy
This is ALL about the public embarrassment that goes with the arrest!
hyhybt
@GayTampaCowboy: …and many people’s employers will fire them just for getting arrested, no matter what the charge is or whether they’ve actually done anything wrong.
shaggs138
I just want to know how many of these laws they actively seek out and punish, especially the one stating: “One could land in jail for up to a year for making a false promise.” Because pretty much all politicians would fall under that one in one way, shape, form, or another.
http://www.dumblaws.com/laws/united-states/louisiana