Gay rights go to court: sodomy laws, same-sex marriage, and the future of homosexual rights.

• Author: Young, Cathy

THE U.S. SUPREME Court is set to rule, for the second time in less than 20 years, on the constitutionality of state laws prohibiting consensual sodomy. At the same time, the Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts is weighing a lawsuit that seeks to legalize same-sex marriages, claiming that marriage to the partner of one's choice is "protected by the liberty and due process clauses of the Massachusetts Constitution. "The two cases and the political response to them illustrate both the progress our culture has made toward equality for gay men and women and the hurdles that remain.

The striking thing about the Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas is the very thought that in the United States in the 21st century, you can get arrested for having sex in your bedroom with a consenting adult. The two men challenging the law, John Lawrence and Tyron Gardner, were briefly jailed and fined $200 each after being caught flagrante delicto in Lawrence's unlocked apartment, which the police entered on a neighbor's false tip about an intruder.

The state's position, in a nutshell, is that it has the right to ban homosexual acts because it considers them immoral. Significantly, the Bush Justice Department has not taken a stand on Lawrence v. Texas. Several socially conservative groups, however, have weighed in to affirm that the government does indeed belong in our bedrooms. A joint brief from the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family states that the Texas law is "a reasonable means of promoting and protecting marriage--the union of a man and a woman."

Which brings us to the far more complex issue of same-sex marriage, raised in a Massachusetts lawsuit by seven gay and lesbian couples seeking the right to marry. How the court will rule is anybody's guess, but in this instance the decision is unlikely to settle the issue. State lawmakers are already gearing up to pass a constitutional amendment stating that "only the union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Massachusetts," which would supercede a court ruling for the plaintiffs. If it passes, it would make Massachusetts the 37th state to outlaw same-sex marriage.

Most secular arguments against gay marriage have been masterfully demolished by gay writers such as Andrew Sullivan and Jonathan Ruch. The most prominent of these arguments--that marriage is defined by its procreative nature--is belied by the fact that heterosexual spouses who are infertile or childless...