Bowers V. Hardwick Argumentative Essay

lesbians were free to meet without the fear of being persecuted, where even though Stonewall was a, “Mafia-owned bar run by a corrupt career criminal [it proved to be] a magnet and relatively safe haven for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender folks looking for a place to meet, drink, dance, “ (Goldstein). In the legal history of the United States the Supreme Courts negligence of applying the Equal Protection Clause onto cases in which homosexual’s fundamental rights have been violated. Equal Protection Clause is part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, that took effect in 1868. It states that no state “shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any

Hardwick, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the U.S Constitution does not prohibit states from classifying homosexual sex as illegal act was valid because there was no constitutionally protected right to engage in homosexual sex, where was instigated that the Constitution does not protect the right of homosexual adults to engage in private or consensual sodomy. The defense argued the case of the fundamental right to privacy which was protected by the Constitution's Due Process Clause. While the right to privacy protects intimate aspects of marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, and child rearing from state interference, it does not protect gay sodomy because there was, "no connection between family, marriage, or procreation on the one hand and homosexual activity on the other has been demonstrated,” (Bowers, Attorney General of Georgia v. Hardwick et al). It took the court thirty years to abolish the criminalization for private sexual intercourse between adult homosexuals, in a recent survey conducted in Ventura County was reported that 38.6% of the population disagree that homosexuals should not have a right to marry, where 42.9% of those who disagreed were men. (Refer Chart 1). When comparing whether or not people support the legalization of same-sex marriage based on political affiliation, the gap between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party is quite large, where the Pew Research Center reported that 63%