Texas lawmaker attempts to repeal law that forces schools to teach homosexuality is an ‘unacceptable lifestyle’
Democrats in Texas have filed a fresh attempt to remove the state’s unconstitutional sodomy law from the statute books, as well as requirements for sex education materials to be anti-gay.
The US Supreme Court struck down all state sodomy laws in a 2003 ruling, finding it unconstitutional to criminalise consenting gay sex.
However, despite the ruling, a number of southern Republican-controlled states have never actually repealed the statutes that criminalise homosexual conduct.
Over the years a number of bills have been filed in the Texas state legislature to take the unenforceable law off the books, but proposals have never won support from the Republican leadership. Both houses have been solidly controlled by the GOP since 2003.
Democratic State Rep. Joe Moody has filed yet another bill, HB 96, to try and strike the sodomy law from the books.
His law would finally strike text from the statute affirming: “Homosexual conduct is not an acceptable lifestyle and is a criminal offense under Section 21.06, Penal Code.
The law would also strike a provision that requires “course materials and instruction relating to sexual education or sexually transmitted diseases… [to] include emphasis, provided in a factual manner and from a public health perspective, that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public and that homosexual conduct is a criminal offence”.
Sodomy laws are still on the books in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.
