Well, I accomplished something today. I made a room full of redneck frat boys realize that a Supreme Court decision about two gay men actually has bearing on their own lives.
I chose to talk about the October 2003 Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas. It overturned the Texas sodomy law and reversed the previous decision in Bowers v. Hardwick.
It was very obvious that these kids had NO idea that there are laws on the books in Georgia that make it illegal for anyone (not just gay people) to have any kind of sex outside of marriage, or that oral sex is illegal for EVERYONE.
A decision that means the sodomy laws can’t be enforced is good news for everyone. But they, like so many people, either ignored the news of the decision back in October or just thought it was for “those queers.”
I also hit the history of laws about sex, the fact that marriage was wholly a private/religious matter with no civil involvement ’til about 1500 years ago, etc.
The research was actually interesting. I could have talked FAR longer than I did.
I got an A- on content, B- on presentation because I went “over time.” I was within the guidelines on the syllabus, but he decided that the speech should be 4–6 minutes instead of the 5–7 that were on the syllabus. Grrr.
