Another one down.On August 31 Chuck Samuelson put on a T-shirt that read NOT TONIGHT DEAR, IT'S A GROSS MISDEMEANOR In American law, a gross misdemeanor is a crime which is more serious than a misdemeanor, but is still classified as a minor crime, as opposed to serious crimes. Such crimes may include petty theft, simple assault or driving under the influence. . It was the last time he'd wear it. Samuelson, the executive director of the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union, symbolically retired the shirt while celebrating the demise of the state's sodomy law A sodomy law is a law that defines certain sexual acts as sex crimes. The precise sexual acts meant by the term sodomy are rarely spelled out in the law, but is typically understood by courts to include any sexual act which does not lead to procreation. at a party at the Minneapolis gay bar Boom. The 141-year-old law, which banned oral sex and other intimacies among consenting adults consenting adults npl → adultos con capacidad de consentir consenting adults npl → personnes consentantes consenting adults npl , expired at 5 P.M., August 31--the deadline by which the state attorney general's office had to appeal district judge Delila Pierce's ruling that the ban violated privacy rights under the Minnesota constitution The Constitution of the State of Minnesota was initially approved by the residents of Minnesota Territory in a special election held on October 13, 1857, and was ratified by the United States Senate on May 11, 1858, marking the admittance of Minnesota to the Union. . "Because of the nonappeal, it's over," said Samuelson, who added that although the law had been used as "a blunt club of discrimination against gay men and lesbians," the victory is for every Minnesotan. "Many heterosexual people felt it never applied to them. It did." |
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