After the death of the LGBT fair housing bill in the state legislature, the LGBT community finally secured a victory when the House Criminal Justice Committee Meeting passed the “crimes against nature” repeal Wednesday.
This means the crimes against nature law, sometimes referred to as the anti-sodomy law, could be adjusted to remove parts that are considered unconstitutional, reenforcing what has already been deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003.
Matt Patterson, Equality Louisiana research and policy coordinator, said the death of the fair housing bill was a disappointment considering the amount of support EQLA expected going into the vote. However, Patterson said there were a few representatives who flipped their votes right before the hearing.
If the bill would have passed, it would have “modernized Louisiana’s fair housing law to forbid discrimination in rental or sale of housing because of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and other categories and update language relating to disabilities to use modern ‘people-first’ language,” according to EQLA literature.
Patterson said members of the religious advocacy organization Louisiana Family Forum were berating people involved in the bill hearing with emails encouraging the bill to be killed, including emails sent to the representatives and EQLA staff.
Patterson said this may have had a considerable influence on the representatives and the reason some of them ultimately decided to change their vote at the last minute. This kind of mass-email chain can sometimes scare representatives into thinking the emails are reflecting their constituents’ opinions, though the email could be coming from people outside their district, Patterson said.
“People get scared when these things happen,” Patterson said. “There were representatives counting their emails in the hearing instead of actually paying attention to the hearing.”
Patterson said this kind of scare and influence is frustrating, considering there has been polling information that reflects Louisiana’s support of fair housing for the LGBT community.
Though the fair housing bill did not pass, Patterson said there are two more bills currently in the works that focus on housing rights, and he recognized the five votes in favor of the bill were still more than a bill like this has received over the past several years.
After a loss for the LGBT community, House Bill 12 authored by Rep. Pat Smith passed nine in favor to six opposed Wednesday in the House Criminal Justice Committee Meeting.
The bill, if implemented as law, would eliminate unconstitutional parts of the “crimes against nature” law still on Louisiana books.
Spectrum panel coordinator Michael Beyer said the victory was the first LGBT rights bill that has passed in Louisiana State Legislature since 2011. The bill is currently scheduled to meet the House floor on April 15.
“This is a huge victory and is very exciting, but there is still a lot work left to do,” Beyer said. “Whether you agree or not, it’s still unconstitutional.”
Devan Blanchard, psychology sophomore and Spectrum member, said while he was disappointed with the outcome of the fair housing bill, he is excited the crimes against nature repeal is moving in a positive direction.
“This is some cleaning up of unconstitutional aspects in Louisiana law, and it’s just good for everybody,” Blanchard said.
“This is a huge victory and is very exciting but there is still a lot work left to do.Whether you agree or not, it’s still unconstitutional.”