Newspaper Page Text
Over $500,000,000.00 is spent annually on
over the counter Headache Remedies.
The average American visits the doctor five
times a year. Half of those visits are due to
headaches.
Chiropractic results are phenomenal. Four
out of five chiropractic patients find relief from
chronic headaches.
For Gentle and Effective Relief from:
• Headaches * Sciatica • Arthritis *
• Scoliosis • Whiplash • Chronic Pain •
Call 872-1094
Dr. Stephanie Blackton, Chiropractor
Sage Hill Shopping Center, Briarcliff at Clifton
Where Doctor Means Teacher
Cont'd from page 8
upheld it in the 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick case.
Since it was first written, the law has under
gone 10 changes. The latest revision, made in
1968, eliminated some of the law's historical
vagueness as well as all reference to gender.
Now anyone, without regard to sex or sexual
orientation, can commit sodomy under
O.C.G.A. 16-6-2, which reads as follows:
"Sodomy is performing or submitting to a
sexual act involving the sex organs of one per
son and the mouth or anus of another. It is a
crime which may be committed otherwise than
per anum. There is no limitation as to the
means by which this crime may be committed."
Simple sodomy is punishable by no less than
one or more than 20 years imprisonment in
Georgia. The state distinguishes aggravated
sodomy from simple sodomy as a crime com
mitted "with force and against the will of anoth
er person," which is punishable by a maximum
sentence of life imprisonment. Solicitation of
sodomy, adultery and fornication (unmarried
people having sex) are also illegal here, but are
punishable as misdemeanors.
According to Brenning, a social activist
working to repeal the law, most people serving
"hard time" in prison for sodomy have been
convicted of sodomy plus another crime, such
as rape, assault or child molestation. The lack
of cases involving simple sodomy alone has left
activists few examples of the law's application
with which to lobby, said Brenning.
Georgia's most noted case of simple sodomy
was the Hardwick decision. Michael Hardwick
was charged with sodomy after a police officer
walked into his bedroom as he was having sex
with another man. The U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that "homosexuals do not have a funda
mental right to engage in acts of consensual
sodomy under the due process clause of the
14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution."
In his dissent from the 54 decision, Justice
Harry Blackmun said, "Like Justice Holmes, I
believe that it is revolting to have no better rea
son for a rule of law than that it was laid down
in the time of Henry IV."
If the constitutional right to privacy means
anything, Blackmun continued, "it means that
before Georgia can prosecute its citizens for
making choices about the most intimate aspects
of their lives, it must do more than assert that
the choice they have made is an abominable
crime not fit to be named among Christians."
Despite the fact that most Americans pratice
some form of sodomy and that 70% of
Georgians favor changing or repealing the
sodomy law, gay and lesbian leaders warn that
change will not come about without supreme
effort. The stricture against sodomy is so
woven into the fabric of American prejudice
and myth, they say, only a determined people
tired of being de facto criminals will break the
"tradition of the law."
National Sodomy
Cont'd from page 8
that minimized Tennessee's sodomy law is
being formed in Oklahoma;
• an effort underfoot in Massachusetts to intro
duce repeal legislation;
• repeal legislation in Maryland that passed the
state Senate in 1987 but was stopped cold in the
House Judiciary Committee in 1987 and 1988;
• and a similar repeal effort in Minnesota that
was voted down in 1987.
The upcoming protest and civil disobedi
ence planned by ACT UP/Atlanta and ACT
UP/NY will be a major next step in the repeal
effort, according to Hyde, who said that the
gay/lesbian community needs to take a lesson
from the black civil rights movement and "fill
not only the state houses, but the jail houses
too. This is the first time I know of that people
arc going to legislative house and putting then-
bodies on the line to demand not just repeal of
the sodomy law in Georgia but throughout the
nation."
20lSouthern Voice
December 21,1989
Borders Book Shop
4655 Roswell at Piedmont, Atlanta, 237-0707
30% off New York Times cloth bestsellers
30% off Borders monthly recommended titles
10% off most other hardcovers
The Final Episode in the
Bestselling TALES OF
THE CITY Series
SURE OF
YOU
A Novel
H ailed as masterpieces and as the quintessential
depiction of San Francisco life, Armistead Maupin’s
bestselling Tales of the City novels won him a devoted
following. Now, with Sure of You, his sixth and final volume,
Maupin brings this popular series to a satisfying finish.
ARMISTEAD MAUPIN
Maupin brings his
addictive Tales of the
City epic to a brilliantly
realized conclusion and
bids fond farewell to
the tangled fates of the
tenants at 28 Barbary
Lane. This novel will not
be serialized anywhere.
HARPER & ROW, $18.95 list,
less 10% at Borders