The relentless advance of reason
Quote of note:
Under Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, armed forces personnel are prohibited from "unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal."
Military Appeals Court Reverses Heterosexual Sodomy Conviction
By JOHN FILES
WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - A military appeals court has overturned the conviction of a soldier for heterosexual sodomy in a decision that legal scholars and advocates for gay rights say may have broader implications for gays serving in the armed forces.
The decision, issued late last month by the United States Army Court of Criminal Appeals, was based in part on the Supreme Court opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, which declared last year that the Texas sodomy statute violated the right to privacy.
The case before the Army court involved a male Army specialist who admitted that he had engaged in consensual oral sex in a barracks room with a female civilian whom he had met at a nightclub. But those seeking to abolish the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and some legal experts, say the ruling is also applicable to private gay sex - thus cracking the foundation of the military's rationale for requiring gays to serve in silence.
