Ruling prompts dismissal of Missouri charges

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The Supreme Court ruling knocking down Texas' anti-sodomy law appeared to invalidate a similar Missouri statute, prompting a county prosecutor Thursday to drop charges against six men arrested in an adult theater.

Gay and lesbian activists celebrated the 6-3 ruling with rallies and parties in Missouri, where years of legislative lobbying to repeal the law had failed.

But a family-rights lobbyist called it a "sad decision" that undermined Missouri's ability to control sexually transmitted diseases.

Attorney General Jay Nixon said in a statement the ruling "appears to call into question" Missouri's law making gay sex a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Legal analysts and gay-rights activists didn't hesitate to declare the Missouri law nullified by the ruling in the case of two Texas men charged with having sex in a private home.

The ruling "has the effect of invalidating Missouri's law," said Denise Lieberman, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri.

"This was a pretty sweeping Supreme Court ruling that recognized all people have a fundamental right to intimate association that cannot be infringed by the state," Lieberman said from St. Louis.

Sodomy laws were once common, but most have been repealed. The Missouri law says, in part, that a person is guilty of sexual misconduct "if he has deviate sexual intercourse with another person of the same sex ... ."

Last year, Jefferson County Prosecutor Bob Wilkins used the statute to charge six men arrested during a raid at an adult theater. Wilkins said the activities were a threat to public health.

The ACLU, representing four of the men, challenged the constitutionality of the Missouri law. That slowed the prosecution. Associate Circuit Judge Mark Stahl said he wouldn't rule before the Supreme Court decided the Texas case.

Wilkins said he hand-delivered paperwork to the judge dismissing the sodomy charges Thursday. Lieberman said she was pleased.

But Wilkins said he would prosecute what he called "alternative charges" of sexual misconduct filed last December, naming the same six men plus a woman who was in the theater.

Those charges rely on a law prohibiting two people from having sexual relations in front of a third person if the activity could "affront or alarm" that person.

Wilkins acknowledged "it's a much harder case to make," since the defendants willingly paid admission to enter a sexually oriented business.

"They were all in the same room in various sex acts almost with interchangeable parts, and there is a public health concern because they leave that theater and go into the outside world," Wilkins said.

The sodomy law has rarely been enforced, but gay activists say its very presence on the books has been used to justify discrimination.

"It's an amazing day for our community. I'm thrilled at the outcome," said Jeff Wunrow, executive director of PROMO, a St. Louis-based gay rights advocacy group.

Parties were planned in Columbia, St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield Thursday evening to celebrate the ruling.

Kerry Messer, president of Missouri Family Network, wasn't celebrating. He said the sodomy law was a matter of "not only values, but public health."

Messer, who has lobbied in the Legislature against past repeal efforts, said the ruling undercut Missouri's authority in curbing sexually transmitted diseases.

"I don't see our sodomy law as being any more restrictive or offensive than our seat belt law or helmet law or mandatory vaccination laws designed to protect the health of our citizens, so I'm very disappointed," Messer said.

The ruling reversed course from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling 17 years ago that said states could punish homosexuals for what such laws historically called deviant sex.

"This marks a new era for gay rights," Wunrow declared at a news conference.