If the police read your diary, it’s considered publication

Back in 1998 in Houston police officers entered an apartment in response to a report of a black man waving a gun around. In the bedroom of the apartment the police were shocked and horrified to find two men engaged in anal sex (or, as one of the two witnessing officers later equivocated, oral sex, maybe?); certain such pleasures had to be illegal (and peeved, no doubt, at finding no guns) the police arrested the men.

There are lots of cruel absurdities in the campaign against the gay. These days most of the noxious rhetoric comes out of the mouths of Republicans, that party having become the default representative of racists, homophobes, and misogynists. Example:

Harris County [Texas] GOP chairman Gary Polland … told the press that the state sodomy law was not unconstitutional and should not be repealed. … “We think it would definitely send the wrong message and signal a continuing deterioration of morals in our society,” he stated, asserting that privacy was not an issue in the case because the sexual conduct of the men became public when police entered the bedroom.

Yes, I bolded that last clever gambit because, c’mon, it’s just so fun!

Lots of people have “evolved” on gay matters since 1998. Current Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel was spouting off in the U.S. Senate about the evils of homosexuals back in 1998, but now he’s assuring the BLT with G community that he’s fully in support of something-having-to-do-with-gays-but-don’t-ask-too-closely. President Obama’s spokesfolks claim that Hagel will be carrying out the president’s policies, which are totally pro-gay, don’t y’know, and 1998 was ever so long ago. Maybe Mr Polland, too, has evolved into a new humanity, who knows? Is he up for a post in the administration?

The Supreme Court evolved back in 2003, overruling their 1986 anti-gay ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick, with Lawrence v. Texas thus throwing out all state sodomy laws. Lawrence was one of the men arrested in what GOP chairman Gary Polland then considered public space.

source of quote: Flagrant Conduct: the story of Lawrence v. Texas by Dale Carpenter