BATON ROUGE, La. — House Speaker Chuck Kleckley says he won’t seek a repeal of an unconstitutional anti-sodomy law from Louisiana’s criminal statutes.
The East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s office used the unenforceable law to arrest gay men agreeing to have consensual sex with undercover agents.
Although sex in public and solicitation of “unnatural carnal copulation” for money are illegal in Louisiana, neither element was part of these 12 cases, and most of the men were arrested after agreeing to have sex away from the park at a private residence.
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“From what I’ve seen of these cases, legally, we found no criminal violation,” said District Attorney Hillar Moore III.
Sheriff Sid Gautreaux has since apologized for the arrests and said he would ask lawmakers to remove the unconstitutional part of the law, which was thrown out 10 years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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He didn’t say whether he might support the repeal if another lawmaker filed the legislation.
