ACLU Aids Southern Baptist Minister Caught in Gay Sex Sting

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ACLU aids pastor caught in gay sex sting
PlanetOut Network
Thursday, February 2, 2006 / 02:30 PM
SUMMARY: With the ACLU's help, a prominent Southern Baptist figure charged in a gay sex sting files a motion to dismiss the case on constitutional grounds.


The American Civil Liberties Union is championing the cause of a Southern Baptist minister arrested in Oklahoma City for inviting a male undercover officer to join him in his hotel room for oral sex.

The Rev. Lonnie "Luke" Latham, 60, was charged with a single misdemeanor count of lewdness last month after propositioning an officer in a hotel parking lot. Latham had been a public opponent of same-sex marriage and urged gay men and lesbians to change their sexual orientation with the help of Jesus Christ.

Although Latham has pleaded not guilty, insisting that he was attempting to "minister" to the undercover policeman, he also filed a motion Wednesday to dismiss the case based on constitutional arguments. In a separate friend-of-the-court brief filed the same day, the ACLU argued that Oklahoma's lewdness statute is overly broad, and conflicts with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling striking sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas.

In that case, the high court extended the right to privacy to encompass private consensual and noncommercial adult sex, including homosexual sex. The Oklahoma lewdness statute, in turn, outlaws "the giving or receiving of the body for indiscriminate sexual intercourse, fellatio, cunnilingus, masturbation, anal intercourse, or lascivious, lustful or licentious conduct with any person not his or her spouse."

As the ACLU notes in its 12-page brief, if it is no longer constitutional to criminalize private sexual conduct that is otherwise legal, it is also impermissible to arrest an individual for extending a sexual invitation as long as he or she is not being abusive or harassing. In this case, Rev. Latham spoke only to the officer, whom he believed might have been interested in the proposal. Further, he was suggesting private activity in a hotel room, not a public romp in the bushes. There is no difference between Latham's offer and a pickup line at a singles bar, the ACLU concluded.

Finally, the ACLU reminded the court that the law in question is almost never enforced against consenting heterosexuals, but used instead to target same-sex seductions in violation of the right to equal protection.

The matter is under the jurisdiction of the Oklahoma City District Court. According to Ken Choe of the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, the prosecutors will now have some time to reply to the motion, after which the court may set a hearing date.

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