Lawrence v. Texas on June

lawrence v. Texas

On June 26, 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6 against 3 that sodomy laws are unconstitutional and unenforceable when applied to non-commercial consenting adults in private, the majority opinion being based on privacy rights. Before this decision, the courts could punish homosexuals very easily, because it was considered that a relationship between adults of the same sex, even if it was consensual, it represented deviant sex.

In Lawrence et al. v. Texas Case, Justice KENNEDY delivered the opinion of the Court: "Liberty protects the person from unwarranted government intrusions into a dwelling or other private places. In our tradition the State is not omnipresent in the home. And there are other spheres of our lives and existence, outside the home, where the State should not be a dominant presence. Freedom extends beyond spatial bounds. Liberty presumes an autonomy of self that includes freedom of thought, belief, expression, and certain intimate conduct. The instant case involves liberty of the person both in its spatial and more transcendent dimensions." This statement underlines that homosexual persons can no longer be subject to discrimination and they will enjoy the same rights as any citizen, in their private and in their social life. For this reason, the Courts' decision in this case represents an important step and it marks an important change: homosexual persons will no longer be considered criminals just because they have different sexual habits, because every citizen has some constitutional rights, and one of the most important of these rights is the right to privacy. The legal status of homosexuality should be no different from the legal status of heterosexuality, because the U.S. is a country that promotes equality between people, irrespective of their religion, beliefs or sexual habits.

Lawrence et al. v. Texas Case has an important impact on homosexuals' lives and it marks a historic moment and a great change of mentality. Gay people can no longer be discriminated and they became equal to a certain extent in point of legal, social and political rights with any other heterosexual. Undoubtedly, the Courts' decision has created a great dispute between different points-of-view, because many have considered that this change was an unwelcome development.