lawsuits

The Attempt To Kill Louisiana’s 200-Year-Old Law That Turns Gay Johns Into Sex Offenders

Lawyers from groups including the Center for Constitutional Rights will today file a federal lawsuit in Louisiana, representing nine anonymous plaintiffs, to challenge “the continuing use of Louisiana’s 200 year-old Crime Against Nature statute to brand people who solicit oral and anal sex – sex acts historically associated with homosexuality – as sex offenders, while a conviction under Louisiana’s prostitution statute triggers no such requirement,” according to a release. The law, enacted in 1805, may appear to have been struck down by both Lawrence v. Texas and a 2005 ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal of Louisiana, but the statute remains on the books.

It’s defined as: “A) The unnatural carnal copulation by a human being with another of the same sex or opposite sex or with an animal, except that anal sexual intercourse between two human beings shall not be deemed as a crime against nature when done under any of the circumstances described in R.S. 14:41, 14:42, 14:42.1 or 14:43. Emission is not necessary; and, when committed by a human being with another, the use of the genital organ of one of the offenders of whatever sex is sufficient to constitute the crime. B) The solicitation by a human being of another with the intent to engage in any unnatural carnal copulation for compensation.”

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