An end to "moral disapproval".

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 2003 ruling striking down antisodomy laws in the United States, officials in Kansas have refused to let go of a law that provided harsher punishment for sex acts involving a young adult and a minor teenager of the same sex than for a similar coupling of opposite-sex partners. In what was lauded as a major gay rights victory, the Kansas supreme court on October 21 unanimously struck down the law, ruling that "moral disapproval of a group cannot be a legitimate state interest."

The case involved Matthew Limon, who was sentenced to 17 years for having oral sex with a 14-year-old male when Limon was just 18. Had his partner been female. he would have gotten only 15 months under the state's lenient "Romeo and Juliet" law. "Our Constitution demands equal protection for all citizens, and there is nothing equal about the way the state of Kansas has treated Matthew Limon until today," said Tamara Lange, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which handled Limon's case. "This decision makes the state of Kansas a fairer place."

Limon, who has served over four years in prison, must be resentenced, the court said.