Obit - Tyron Garner 1967 - 2006 - Plaintiff in Texas sodomy case
Tyron Garner 1967 - 2006 - Plaintiff in Texas sodomy case
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
September 15, 2006
Supreme Court declared state's ban on homosexual acts unconstitutional
New York Times News Service
Published September 15, 2006
Tyron Garner, one of two plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case in 2003 that overruled a Texas sodomy law in the broadest possible terms, effectively making homosexual relations a basic civil right, died Monday in Houston. He was 39.
The cause was complications from meningitis, said his brother, Darrell.
Mr. Garner and John Lawrence were arrested between 10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Sept. 17, 1998, and charged with violating the Texas Homosexual Conduct Law by a sheriff's deputy who said he had witnessed them in the act.
The men pleaded not guilty at their arraignment but later changed the pleas to no contest at the urging of lawyers eager to challenge the constitutionality of the law, not the factual basis of the arrests.
The men were represented throughout the case by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which defends gay men and lesbians.
Their convictions were overturned by a three-judge panel of a state appeals court and then upheld, 7-2, by the full court. After the state's highest court rejected the case, the men appealed to the Supreme Court.
On June 26, 2003, the court overruled sodomy laws, which it had upheld in 1986 from a Georgia case. In the opinion he wrote for the 6-3 majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the earlier interpretation "demeans the lives of homosexual persons."
Kennedy said that gay men and lesbians were "entitled to respect for their private lives" and that the state could not "control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime."
Tyron Garner was born July 10, 1967, and did not reveal much about his early life.
He was unemployed at the time of his arrest and a year later sold barbecue at a street stand in Houston. His criminal record included two convictions for assault in 1995 and 2000, The Dallas Morning News reported in 2003.
The lawyers for Mr. Garner and Lawrence consistently shielded them from scrutiny, denying requests for interviews. Their lawyer in Houston, Mitchell Kitrane, said in an interview with Dale Carpenter in The Michigan Law Review that they were "on the quiet side, passive-type individuals."
Neither had prior involvement with gay-rights groups.
In addition to his brother Darrell of Houston, Mr. Garner is survived by seven brothers and two sisters.
Mr. Garner took quiet pride in his place in history.
"I don't really want to be a hero," he said in an interview with The Houston Chronicle in 2004. "But I want to tell other gay people, `Be who you are, and don't be afraid."'
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
September 15, 2006
Supreme Court declared state's ban on homosexual acts unconstitutional
New York Times News Service
Published September 15, 2006
Tyron Garner, one of two plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case in 2003 that overruled a Texas sodomy law in the broadest possible terms, effectively making homosexual relations a basic civil right, died Monday in Houston. He was 39.
The cause was complications from meningitis, said his brother, Darrell.
Mr. Garner and John Lawrence were arrested between 10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Sept. 17, 1998, and charged with violating the Texas Homosexual Conduct Law by a sheriff's deputy who said he had witnessed them in the act.
The men pleaded not guilty at their arraignment but later changed the pleas to no contest at the urging of lawyers eager to challenge the constitutionality of the law, not the factual basis of the arrests.
The men were represented throughout the case by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which defends gay men and lesbians.
Their convictions were overturned by a three-judge panel of a state appeals court and then upheld, 7-2, by the full court. After the state's highest court rejected the case, the men appealed to the Supreme Court.
On June 26, 2003, the court overruled sodomy laws, which it had upheld in 1986 from a Georgia case. In the opinion he wrote for the 6-3 majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the earlier interpretation "demeans the lives of homosexual persons."
Kennedy said that gay men and lesbians were "entitled to respect for their private lives" and that the state could not "control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime."
Tyron Garner was born July 10, 1967, and did not reveal much about his early life.
He was unemployed at the time of his arrest and a year later sold barbecue at a street stand in Houston. His criminal record included two convictions for assault in 1995 and 2000, The Dallas Morning News reported in 2003.
The lawyers for Mr. Garner and Lawrence consistently shielded them from scrutiny, denying requests for interviews. Their lawyer in Houston, Mitchell Kitrane, said in an interview with Dale Carpenter in The Michigan Law Review that they were "on the quiet side, passive-type individuals."
Neither had prior involvement with gay-rights groups.
In addition to his brother Darrell of Houston, Mr. Garner is survived by seven brothers and two sisters.
Mr. Garner took quiet pride in his place in history.
"I don't really want to be a hero," he said in an interview with The Houston Chronicle in 2004. "But I want to tell other gay people, `Be who you are, and don't be afraid."'
posted by Carlos T Mock @ 6:04 PM
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