HOUSTON (CNN)--
On Friday, two Texas men were arrested for having sex in a private home, and they did not dispute the sodomy charges, launching a court questioning state laws that make gay sex a crime.
John Gayde Lawrence, 55, and Tyrone Ghana, 31, were fined $125 by Judge peace Mike parrot.
They immediately appealed to the state district court, hoping that the sodomy act in Texas would eventually be found to be a constitutional violation.
"I hope we can change the law.
I feel my civil rights (were)
I have done nothing wrong, "said Ghana.
"It's kind of like Gestapo," Lawrence said . "
On September, deputies to the sheriff-
Responding to false reports of an armed man at Lawrence's house ---
The men were arrested under a law in Texas that made sex and anal sex a minor offence.
They spent the night in prison.
The law has been in existence for more than a century, but is rarely enforced.
Gay activists have failed to repeal the bill for years.
Prosecutors dealing with Lawrence and Ghana's cases, Brett Ligen, said prosecutors were obliged to enforce as long as the law was still on the books.
But New York lawyer Suzanne Goldberg
The Lambda-based Legal Defense and Education Fund, which represents men, says the Texas sodomy act is a "outrageous invasion" of the private lives of gay men and women ".
"The government should not regulate the mutually agreed sexual relationship between private individuals," she said . " It added that the case would be appealed on the grounds that the law violated the state and federal constitution.
Texas is one of five states that make oral sex and anal sex a crime for gay and lesbian people, but not for straight people.
The sodomy law in 14 other states also applies to both groups.
In Georgia and Virginia, sodomy can last 20-
Sentenced to one year in prison
Since 1962, 25 states have abolished the sodomy law, and state courts in six other states have also abolished the sodomy law. At 1986, by 5-to-4 vote, the U. S.
The Supreme Court upheld the Georgian sodomy law, ruling that it did not violate the federal constitution.
Reuters contributed to the report.
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