There's an argument that bypasses to these pitfalls when it comes to dismantling the attempts to legislate sexuality, and I think it will work and hope that somebody SOMEWHERE tries it:
Namely that laws that regulate sexuality are illegal because they violate the separation of church and state.
Every single one of the laws attacking or discriminating sexual orientation come from a point of view that is essentially, a religious bias. And what's more, within the religions who don't tolerate the "deviant"(as in deviating from the norm/mean) sexual orientations, it is generally only certain sects of the religions in question.
Legislating sexuality, therefore is promoted only by certain sects of certain religions, and so passing these laws is a violation of the separation of church and state, since the people who have an issue with them are doing so on religious, not legal groundings. It is illegal for the Government to favor one religion over others in legislation.
That argument has been used in the courts before (in the various sex laws in Virginia), and the court's opinion was that the state has the right to enforce the standards of society, regardless of the origins. Of course, you can't define societal standards, especially in a diverse population as ours, but that's neither here nor there in the law of the land.
I'm sure the founding fathers thought the phrase "seperation of church and state" was unambiguous, but it certainly seems that they should have spelled it out more, including floggings about the head and shoulders for the pinheads who try to slip a national religion in sideways.
(no subject)
Namely that laws that regulate sexuality are illegal because they violate the separation of church and state.
Every single one of the laws attacking or discriminating sexual orientation come from a point of view that is essentially, a religious bias. And what's more, within the religions who don't tolerate the "deviant"(as in deviating from the norm/mean) sexual orientations, it is generally only certain sects of the religions in question.
Legislating sexuality, therefore is promoted only by certain sects of certain religions, and so passing these laws is a violation of the separation of church and state, since the people who have an issue with them are doing so on religious, not legal groundings. It is illegal for the Government to favor one religion over others in legislation.
(no subject)
I'm sure the founding fathers thought the phrase "seperation of church and state" was unambiguous, but it certainly seems that they should have spelled it out more, including floggings about the head and shoulders for the pinheads who try to slip a national religion in sideways.