Wendy Whitaker is a sex offender. At 17, she had oral sex with a boy, just shy of his 16th birthday. She's losing her house because she cannot live within 1000 feet of any area where children congregate, and the local church runs an unadvertised daycare. In 2006 she sued over the residency restrictions. Last Thursday, she lost. She filed a new lawsuit, saying that her sex offender status is cruel and unusual punishment. [more inside]
posted by desjardins on Nov 24, 2008 - 169 comments

In 1955, at least twelve men in Boise, Idaho were arrested for "infamous crimes against nature.". In the resulting dragnet, the vice president of the Idaho First National Bank was sentenced to seven years in prison, while national magazines fomented a McCarthyite Lavender Scare with headlines such as Male Pervert Ring Seduces 1,000 Boys. This dark chapter in Idaho gay history was documented in both John Gerassi's 1966 book, The Boys of Boise and the recent film, The Fall of '55, by documentarian Seth Randal, but neither Gerassi nor Randal could identify The Queen, a closeted but politically connected homosexual who allegedly used his massive clout to stop the witch hunt.
posted by jonp72 on Aug 28, 2007 - 45 comments

Hate crime, Rape victim dies of shame.
posted by availablelight on Jul 2, 2007 - 110 comments

Eygption Police officer use a cellphone to film a man being sodomized by police. Egyptian opposition media have claimed that in the police academy, recruits are trained to use torture to extract confessions. (NSFW) video on youtube.
posted by IronWolve on Jan 22, 2007 - 51 comments

Horrible acts of human behavior. Via: First Rule.
posted by SeizeTheDay on Nov 21, 2005 - 159 comments

“Matthew Limon, the gay man at the center of a Kansas law struck down by the state Supreme Court, was freed late Thursday night, but his ordeal may not be over.
posted by halekon on Nov 4, 2005 - 67 comments

Justice Scalia faces probing question at NYU due to previous dissenting opinion in Texas sodomy case. Questioner responds to the controversy. via
posted by peacay on Apr 15, 2005 - 54 comments

Former ballerina Toni Bentley danced with the New York City Ballet for ten years, but since retiring, has become a novelist. She has penned four prior books, but her latest is causing a stir: The Surrender is entirely devoted to her adoration of sodomy. Atheist Bentley insists that she's found a spiritual ecstasy in buggery: "...My ass is my very own back door to heaven" (some links NSFW & registration req.).
posted by naxosaxur on Oct 17, 2004 - 40 comments

Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's dissident ex-deputy PM, released from prison after sodomy charge quashed. More background at the Free Anwar campaign, Human Rights Watch.
posted by plep on Sep 3, 2004 - 4 comments

The first lawsuit in the wake of Lawrence v. Texas was filed today.

Lieutenant Colonel Steve Loomis is a decorated Vietnam combat veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart, who was eight days away from his twenty year retirement date and a million dollar pension, when an arsonist set fire to his home. A private sex tape involving Loomis was found during the arson investigation, and turned over to the Army.

Shortly there after LTC Loomis was discharged, losing his pension, because he was gay. His complaint[PDF] seeks to reverse his 1997 discharge.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood on Jul 8, 2003 - 46 comments

Supreme Court wisely rules that you can't legislate morality and that privacy between consenting adults is a-ok as the Texas sodomy law (that applies to homosexuals only) is struck down. Ruling invalidates other remaining sodomy laws on the books. Dancing in the streets ensues. And as usual, Scalia gets to add his wisecracks in the dissent. [via SCOTUSblog]
posted by mathowie on Jun 26, 2003 - 142 comments

On September 17, 1998, in response to an armed robbery call, Houston police burst in to the home of John Lawrence. The police didn’t find a robber (nor would they – the call was deliberately false), but they did find Lawrence having sex with another man, Tyrone Garner. Lawrence and Garner were promptly charged with “engaging in homosexual conduct,” a misdemeanor under Texas law. They paid their fine and began a long legal challenge to Texas’ anti-sodomy law. That challenge has finally reached the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, which today agreed to hear their appeal early next year. Standing in the way is the Court’s own 1986 decision in Bowers v. Hardwick, in which it held that anti-sodomy laws are constitutional. That may be about to change.
posted by pardonyou? on Dec 2, 2002 - 43 comments

Cannes film sickens audience It proved so shocking that 250 people walked out, some needing medical attention. Good lord.
posted by Summer on May 26, 2002 - 21 comments

Sodomy laws repealed in Massachusetts Equal laws no matter what 'things' you're doing? The sky is going to fall? You decide.
posted by LinemanBear on Feb 22, 2002 - 27 comments

Malasia's attitude to sodomy and politics is brought into graphic focus by this bizarre news story in which an ex leader of the country has been sentenced to nine years in prison for sodomy. His brother has been sentenced to six years and four lashes with a rattan cane. Human rights violations literally up the wazoo...
posted by barbelith on Aug 8, 2000 - 3 comments

Louisiana's Supreme Court has upheld a two-century-old law that makes oral and anal sex between consenting adults punishable by up to five years in jail. Where they're liable to have...you guessed it... oral and anal sex. Good thinking.

"Any claim that private sexual conduct between consenting adults is constitutionally insulated from state proscription is unsupportable," Justice Chet Traylor wrote for the majority. It was hard for me to imagine a learned adjudicator uttering such nonsense, until I repeated it out loud in a slow, Boss Hogg drawl...
posted by quonsar on Jul 9, 2000 - 23 comments