MetaFilter posts tagged with sodomy

Tearoom: Too busy sucking on a ding-dong

item — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:51:05 -0800

In 1962, the Mansfield (Ohio) Police Department stationed officers armed with a movie camera behind a two-way mirror in a public restroom known for its "cruisy" atmosphere. With the help of the footage shot, dozens of men were arrested, prosecuted, and convicted on sodomy charges, which at the time carried mandatory minimum sentences of a year in prison. In 2007, the original surveillance footage was obtained by filmmaker William E. Jones. He's screened the unedited 56 minute film as Tearoom at festivals and museums the world over, providing a clandestine look at the scrutiny small-town Midwestern gay men faced in the 1960's. [warning: explicit, NSFW material lies beyond most links] A 9 minute clip is on youtube, presumably passing censoring because the text is in Japanese. The entire film, found footage which may fall under public ownership, is available as a 409 mb Mediafire file linked via the blog Psychotic States - it's under the "Swallow the pill" link. PS has this to say about Tearoom: "Shot without sound, in grainy color 16 mm, it's a stunning document. The men range in age from their 20s to their 60s. They are white and black, fat and thin, in a banker's suit or name-patched mechanic's uniform. Faces humorless, eyes on the door, they masturbate, give handjobs and blowjobs, and perform anal sex; a few exchange money." The "about" section on Jones' Tearoom page carries a wealth of reviews, write-ups, articles, and interviews with the filmmaker, where he offers the following: "Some audiences are very angry when they see the footage, and I try to deal with these situations as calmly as possible. They are angry at having to confront such blunt images of oppression. Other audiences are very polite and seem to appreciate the footage. It’s really a broad spectrum of reactions."

So Do My Heroes

rtha — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 08:11:21 -0800

The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime. Their right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in their conduct without intervention of the government. - Justice Anthony Kennedy

John Geddes Lawrence, the defendant in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that declared sodomy laws unconstitutional across the country, died on Nov. 20, according to an obituary posted by R.S. Farmer Funeral Home in Silsbee, Texas. He was 68. In 1998, John Lawrence and Tyron Garner were arrested in Lawrence’s Houston home and jailed overnight after officers responding to a false report found the men having sex. The two men were convicted of violating Texas’s “Homosexual Conduct” law, which made it a crime for two people of the same sex to have oral or anal sex, even though those sex acts were legal in Texas for people to engage in with persons of a different sex. Lambda Legal quickly responded to represent Lawrence and Garner. Battling for years in the Texas courts, we sought to overturn the criminal convictions (which made the two men registerable “sex offenders” in several states) and to have Texas’s law declared unconstitutional. When the highest court in Texas eventually refused to even hear our arguments, we convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case. In a stunning victory, the highest court in the land found the “Homosexual Conduct” law unconstitutional and established, for the first time, that lesbians and gay men share the same fundamental liberty right to private sexual intimacy with another adult that heterosexuals have.

Pardoning Thanksgiving Turkeys

homunculus — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:24:54 -0800

Freebirds: A Thanksgiving lesson in forgiveness.

The law of unintended consequences?

desjardins — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:49:38 -0800

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. Like the case of Genarlow Wilson (previously, 1, 2), if they'd just had intercourse instead of oral sex, it would have been a misdemeanor, not a felony. What she did is no longer a felony in Georgia, but a law was passed so that justice does not apply retroactively, so Wilson and Whitaker remain convicted felons. Another law effectively barred sex offenders from the entire state, and Whitaker moved to South Carolina. She returned to GA when the law was overturned. They're allowing Whitaker to stay in her home during the lawsuit but she won't be volunteering at the church.

The Boys of Boise

jonp72 — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 18:39:18 -0800

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.

Rape, hate crime victim commits suicide.

availablelight — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 21:37:22 -0800

Hate crime, Rape victim dies of shame.

Eygption Police officer uses a cellphone to film a man being sodomized by police.

IronWolve — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 02:36:59 -0800

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.

Horrible Acts of Human Behavior

SeizeTheDay — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 11:26:06 -0800

Horrible acts of human behavior. Via: First Rule.

free at las

halekon — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 16:48:42 -0800

“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.

Scalia questioned on sodomy at NYU

peacay — Fri, 15 Apr 2005 17:09:13 -0800

Justice Scalia faces probing question at NYU due to previous dissenting opinion in Texas sodomy case. Questioner responds to the controversy. via

Open your ass - open your mind

naxosaxur — Sun, 17 Oct 2004 21:44:31 -0800

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.).

AnwarFilter

plep — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 03:35:59 -0800

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.

Loomis v. Unites States of America

Steve_at_Linnwood — Tue, 08 Jul 2003 18:22:06 -0800

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.

SCOTUS goes gay

mathowie — Thu, 26 Jun 2003 08:00:24 -0800

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]

U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider anti-homosexual laws

pardonyou? — Mon, 02 Dec 2002 14:49:01 -0800

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.

Cannes film sickens audience

Summer — Sun, 26 May 2002 03:51:24 -0800

Cannes film sickens audience It proved so shocking that 250 people walked out, some needing medical attention. Good lord.

Sodomy laws repealed in Massachusetts

LinemanBear — Fri, 22 Feb 2002 07:55:39 -0800

Sodomy laws repealed in Massachusetts Equal laws no matter what 'things' you're doing? The sky is going to fall? You decide.

Malasia's attitude to sodomy and politics

barbelith — Tue, 08 Aug 2000 04:10:39 -0800

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...

quonsar — Sun, 09 Jul 2000 00:06:04 -0800

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...