A South Carolina man is suing the state
over a requirement he registers as a sex offender for having
consensual sex with another man.
The man, identified as “John Doe”
in the lawsuit, in 2001 was found guilty of violating South
Carolina's prohibition against gay sex. Two years later, the U.S.
Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas struck down state sodomy
laws as unconstitutional.
Over two decades after his conviction,
Doe must continue to register as a sex offender, despite the high
court's ruling.
Doe is represented by the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of South Carolina and Matthew Strugar, a
private attorney based in Los Angeles.
“South Carolina is the last state in
the country to require sex offender registration for pre-Lawrence
sodomy convictions,” said
ACLU-SC Legal Director Allen Chaney. “This practice needlessly
subjects law abiding citizens to the horrors of the sex offender
registry and demonstrates a deeply troubling animosity by the State
towards the gay community.”
Strugar told The Post and Courier
that complying with the demands of the sex offender registry is a
burden to his client. Doe must provide personal details about his
life – including fingerprints, palm prints, and a list of online
accounts he has used – twice a year to state officials. In his
lawsuit, Doe also claims that his continued status as a sex offender
has led to the loss of professional, economic, and social
opportunities and stigma.
“It is unconscionable that in 2021,
South Carolina would still put people convicted of having gay sex on
the sex offender registry,” said
Strugar. “This kind of overt, state-sanctioned homophobia would
have been surprising 30 years ago. Today it is shocking. And it is
unconstitutional.”
The lawsuit names South Carolina
Attorney General Alan Wilson and South Carolina State Law Enforcement
Division Chief Mark Keel as defendants.