Left Field

by Patricia Nell Warren

As I write this, many Americans cheer the Supreme Court?s decision on sodomy. The day it was announced, happy demonstrators took to the streets in thirty-six cities. Democratic frontrunner Howard Dean praised the Lawrence v. Texas decision. Many were surprised at the decision, given the Court?s recent conservative bent. The religious right were surprised too...and outraged. They insist that this decision will harm public health and fuel the AIDS epidemic. 

Many organizations and leaders reacted, including Traditional Values Coalition chairman Lou Sheldon, who fumed:  ?The Court has ignored compelling evidence that shows that homosexual sodomy is a behavior that has serious health consequences not only to those engaging in this act, but to society as a whole. Millions of dollars are spent each year to deal with AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases contracted through homosexual sodomy. Yet the Court has elevated anal sex over the right of a state to protect its citizens from a serious public health crisis.? 

Sheldon himself ignores compelling evidence. After a quarter century of sodomy law, Texas has the nation?s fourth highest AIDS-case total. Across the country, sodomy law has no provable history of stopping AIDS. But members of the religious right aren?t interested in facts.  They?re still convinced that AIDS is God?s judgment on homosexuals and others who have sex outside marriage, and they believe that God is telling them to roll back the sodomy decision.  

So, to fight the Court, the rightists must find a new master strategy. Public-health fear helps fill the bill. Today, epidemics fill the news?people are frightened about SARS, West Nile, dengue, Ebola, monkeypox, anthrax, even growing antibiotics? resistance to staph and organisms that cause sexually transmitted disease. Frightened people will do what they?re told. Hence the religious right?s instinct to hammer on the sodomy decision through AIDS myths and fears.

Along the way, we can expect present trends to intensify. The CDC may come more under the right?s thumb (rightists already flexed their muscle at CDC chief Jeffrey Koplan?s endorsement of condoms?it was evidently a factor in his resignation last year.) Rightists will escalate pressures on government to focus AIDS policy on abstinence-only prevention.  More civilians may be prosecuted under existing state laws that criminalize HIV transmission?the military has already speeded up such trials, with penalties of three to six years in recent cases. Conservative Texas law enforcement already say they?ll find other ways of prosecuting gay sex in their state. 

The right may also squeeze Congress and state legislatures to get new laws passed that impose rightist values on new areas of public health. If Americans get frightened enough, they may tolerate limits on freedom of so-called ?superinfected? HIV-positives, who carry two or more strains?Americans are already scared stiff over so-called ?superspreaders? of SARS. I?ve been watching shifts in public-health posture for some time, and am convinced that mandatory HIV testing is not far down the road?along with directly observed treatment (DOT) to ensure ironclad adherence to doctors? orders and put the brakes on growing drug resistance. 

Naturally the right will intensify efforts to pack the Supreme Court with more conservative judges. Then they will engineer a few well-chosen cases through the system, in hopes that a ?religion-friendlier? Court will hand down another sodomy decision countering the one just made. After all, the Court?s history shows some dramatic about-faces on big issues, slavery among them. Why not work for a turn-around on sodomy?  

But these strategies will take years. Meanwhile rightists hunger for results now. So they will make a major move during the upcoming Presidential campaign. The Democrats are desperate to recoup power, and the Republicans are desperate to hold onto power, hoping that Bush can match the emerging charisma of Howard Dean...if Dean wins the Dem nomination. I can?t wait to see these two candidates go head-to-head on the sodomy decision.

Will the religious right find that master-stroke of strategy that gets most Americans in their corner on public health? Or will they get carried away, as they often do, and make a tactical mistake that explodes this campaign in their own faces? Stay tuned. One thing I do know. People fight with the greatest ferocity when they feel they?re cornered?and the religious right feels cornered. We must be prepared to fight like demons ourselves?otherwise the religious right can win.

Patricia Nell Warren, author of fiction bestsellers like The Front Runner, also writes provocative commentary. Her writings are archived at www.patricianellwarren.com. Reach her by e-mail at patriciawarren@aol.com.

Copyright ? 2003 Patricia Nell Warren. All rights reserved.