The Associated Press is running their oft-reprinted story on Lawrence v. Texas, entitled “Supreme Court strikes down gay sex ban,” with the following paragraph:
The case began when a neighbor with a grudge faked a distress call to police, telling them that a man was “going crazy” in Lawrence’s apartment. Police went to the apartment, pushed open the door and found the two men having anal sex.
This is misleading. The officers were responding to a report of a “weapons disturbance.” Lawrence v. State, 41 S.W. 3d 349, 350 (2001). This was reported concurrently by the Houston Chronicle’s November 6, 1998 edition, at A1, authored by R.A. Dyer. The Chronicle later reported that the man was convicted for the filing of a false report and briefly imprisoned.
By removing the false report of the weapons disturbance, the AP is not accurately portraying the police officers’ significant reason for intrusion into Mr. Lawrence’s home. Please correct this accordingly.
E-mail the AP at info@ap.org.
The way I would put it while drunk at a bar—all factually true:
“So this motherfucker like, you know he probably hates the gay, and he can hear neighbor-boy like fucking all the time. Lawrence is all early thirties, so he’s got the action, right? Well, his old-ass boyfriend—dude, Garner is like in his fifties, but you know, I’m always ‘I’d make out with Ellen Gilchrist in a heartbeat,’ so who am I to judge?—his boyfriend’s there and they’re going at it.
“So dude says fuck this, I’m’a call the cops. I’ll fucking fake it. So he did. ‘There’s some guy going crazy next door! He’s got a gun and threatening people!’
“So yeah, the cops, they hustle on out. Dude is in the fucking parking lot, can you believe that? Pointing the way. I think that’s why they busted his ass—don’t know if he used 911, but he probably did, and the dumb motherfucker stood there and said ‘that’s the apartment, officer.’
Dumbass. Gun charges are a big fucking deal. Felony, dude.
“So they bust in. It wasn’t no Bowers v. Hardwick shit—dude, they were straight sixty-nineing!—but it was some man-on-man ack-shun. So the cops, being cops, and probably being young, freak out, and arrest them.
“And so five years later here we are. I hope John Lawrence gets his brains fucked-out tonite, legal-style, for the first time ever. And I’m going to get drunk toasting Texas getting its fucking shit put down.”
I understand bar-speak so much better than legalese…
haw haw!
bowers v. hardwick (1986)
two dudes straight sixty-nineing. dude, no way! fags, dude . . .
lawrence v. texas (2003)
two dudes all up ons. fuck it, it’s cool . . . not my business, dude—fucking lay off . . .
I’ve been looking around on the net to find someone on the right explain why the defeat of this law is a bad thing. I’m finding plenty of bible-beating and teeth-gnashing, but where are some intelligent, responsible arguments against today’s decision?
If anyone knows of a reasonable publication on the right, let me know. I honestly don’t know where any are.
gclark, i honestly believe the ONLY argument—and a strong one—rests with scalia’s vitriol (haven’t read it yet, but i can feel it in me bones . . . ). it’s a classic states’ rights argument:
texas citizens should be able to democratically control how their state “looks” and “feels,” without interference from daddy. as in, if a majority of texas citizens want sodomy between same-sex persons to be illegal, we should respect that, unless there is a MASSIVE reason why we should overrule it. normally this must be based on a “traditional” or long-recognized right.
that’s how segregation gets exempted from the neo-con’s argument. “it’s SO horrible, no state should do it.” right, right. still, scalia’s path takes one towards “zones of freedom,” just like jim crow did. traveling with your boyfriend? can’t drive through texas, because YOU MIGHT BE ARRESTED. ridiculous non-logic.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2003/06/27/scalia/print.html
salon article on the dissent by scalia. fuck him
If MSU wins a football game and some sports writer writes a column about how much ass they kicked, you don’t go around trying to find another writer who has written a piece about how the victory was wrongheaded. Same thing applies here. So quit jacking off and spend more time gloating over a (rare) “win.”