Gay Rights and the Constitution
Gay Rights and the Constitution
“I 'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.” ~Paul Newman Can the courts or the law tell the people in what way they can be intimate with their partners? Throughout the history of the United states there has been some constitutional controversy concerning which rights we possess that are protected under the constitution. Controversy has also surrounded who the constitution protects. At one time it was said that no person of African American race was or would ever be citizens of the united states. This was changed with the Fourteenth Amendment to the constitution. This fact leads me to believe that gay rights will continue to progress even though it has been a slow moving process. For decades there has been the issue of Gay rights and some of the courts controversial decisions have stemmed from cases regarding gay rights. A couple of these controversial cases have been of the cases the 1986 case of Bowers vs. Hardwick, and the 2003 case of Lawrence vs. Texas. All three of these case involve gay rights and virtually the rights of adult individuals to engage in sexual activities with other consenting adults of the same or opposite sex. Many cases have gone to the supreme court to decide the constitutionality of these issues pertaining to gay rights, Even though it is in the power of the supreme court to interpret the laws and the constitution, sometimes the Supreme Court makes the wrong decision. There was a point in time when the Supreme Court gave consent to the states to criminalize the act of adult males to engage in sexual sodomy in the privacy of their own homes. In the
“I 'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.” ~Paul Newman Can the courts or the law tell the people in what way they can be intimate with their partners? Throughout the history of the United states there has been some constitutional controversy concerning which rights we possess that are protected under the constitution. Controversy has also surrounded who the constitution protects. At one time it was said that no person of African American race was or would ever be citizens of the united states. This was changed with the Fourteenth Amendment to the constitution. This fact leads me to believe that gay rights will continue to progress even though it has been a slow moving process. For decades there has been the issue of Gay rights and some of the courts controversial decisions have stemmed from cases regarding gay rights. A couple of these controversial cases have been of the cases the 1986 case of Bowers vs. Hardwick, and the 2003 case of Lawrence vs. Texas. All three of these case involve gay rights and virtually the rights of adult individuals to engage in sexual activities with other consenting adults of the same or opposite sex. Many cases have gone to the supreme court to decide the constitutionality of these issues pertaining to gay rights, Even though it is in the power of the supreme court to interpret the laws and the constitution, sometimes the Supreme Court makes the wrong decision. There was a point in time when the Supreme Court gave consent to the states to criminalize the act of adult males to engage in sexual sodomy in the privacy of their own homes. In the
References: Conway, G. (2003). Inevitable Reconstructions" Voice and Ideology in Two Landmark U.S. Supreme Court Opinions. Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 6(3), 487-507 Garlinger, P. (2004). In All But Name: Marriage and the Meaning of Homosexuality. Retrieved August 30, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bowers_v._Hardwick&oldid=379495984 Lawrence v Retrieved August 30, 2010 from http://law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.zs.html Stark, E Bentele, U. (2010, Summer). THE NOT SO GREAT WRIT: TRAPPED IN THE NARROW HOLDINGS OF SUPREME COURT PRECEDENTS . Lewis & Clark Law Review. Retrieved from http://westlaw.edu Garvey, T