The Flint Hills Observer
February 1997

ACLU Attorney Says Romer is the End of Bowers
by Deb Taylor

Matt Coles, Director of the ACLU’s National Lesbian and Gay Rights and AIDS/HIV Projects, spoke on the importance and implications of both the Bowers v. Hardwick and the Romer v. Evans cases to a crowd of lawyers and activists on Friday, January 31. Matt was presenting at the Constructing Change II Conference, which was sponsored by The Washburn Law Student Gay & Lesbian Network and the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association.

Bowers v. Hardwick is the 1986 case where the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Georgia’s sodomy law; the Court decided that states may outlaw private homosexual acts between consenting adults. In Romer v. Evans (1996), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Colorado’s Amendment 2—which would have prohibited states and local governments from enacting gay rights ordinances—violated the 14th Amendment’s guarantee that all citizens have a fundamental right to equal protection laws.

According to Matt, the result of Bowers was that states could keep their sodomy laws; therefore, no privacy for lesbians and gays. But the most important aspect of Bowers, stated Matt, was that it had the nastiest U.S. Supreme Court opinion in the 20th Century. The opinion was laced with hatred toward lesbians and gays showed that the Court thought very little of us.

In stark contrast, added Matt, the Romer opinion was a respectful nomenclature of lesbians and gays. The message that the Court gave was that people in the 1990s don’t discriminate. According to Romer, states cannot justify having laws that are not protecting of some groups of people but are protecting of others.

On the face of it, stated Matt, the Bowers and Romer decisions don’t have much to do with each other. But, Matt added, Romer is the end of Bowers. For example, five states (including Kansas) still have same-sex-only sodomy laws. Because of Romer, lawyers can argue that laws can’t be made to criminalize some people and not others. Additionally, Romer implies that courts can’t keep children from lesbian moms when their heterosexual fathers might also commit sodomy.

Because of the respectful nature of Romer, Matt sees this as a social revolution more than a legal revolution. But, reminded Matt, the courts cannot change the way people think. WE change society by changing the way people think; thus, the important of staying aware and being vocal.