LA - Revision of Louisiana's crime-against-nature laws, and why they don't do anything for those already convicted

Original Article
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08/23/2011

By Alex Woodward

Louisiana retooled its "scarlet letter" statute to remove the solicitation of oral and anal intercourse as a "sex offender" offense. But there are still hundreds of people on the registry for a crime opponents say shouldn't have existed in the first place.

Last week, the state rolled out its latest batch of laws — more than 200 of them — from changing the state's gemstone to allowing the sale of cars with dashboard TV screens (but not for the driver). However, one law, which prohibits sex offenders from joining social networking websites, has sparked furious disapproval from civil rights groups.

The Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union said it would try to block the law, claiming it's too broad and could be interpreted to include any website with some degree of "social networking," like comment boards and blogs.

That same week, civil rights attorneys and advocacy groups were fighting another law that targeted sex offenders — legislation that has been on the books for decades. That law specifically targets people convicted of solicitation for Crimes Against Nature, a more than 200-year-old Louisiana statute that has remained relatively unchanged for years. The Crimes Against Nature law separates the solicitation of oral and anal sex (which it refers to as "unnatural carnal copulation") from prostitution. Civil rights advocates and attorneys argue it singles out gay and transgender people, and if they are charged with the offense, they face stiffer fines and longer jail sentences than are handed down in prostitution cases — including having to register as a sex offender.
- They should get rid of the crime against nature part, and just change it so if you commit a sex crime, any sex crime, even prostitution, then you will get the scarlet letter "SEX OFFENDER" on your license and forehead for life.  Of course I am being sarcastic, and do not wish anybody to be on the online shaming hit-list.

Until this month, people convicted of solicitation of Crimes Against Nature (or "SCAN") were required to register as sex offenders and be included in a searchable registry on the Louisiana State Police's sex offender and child predator registry alongside convicted child molesters, rapists and pedophiles.

"Being registered means your name, your photo, your address, appear on the website," explains Alexis Agathocleous, staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). "You're carrying around a drivers' license and ID that says 'sex offender' in bright letters, you've got to send notifications to neighbors — that includes schools, parks, rec centers, businesses — saying who you are and where you live, that you're convicted of a Crime Against Nature, and also that you're being labeled as a sex offender."
- This is just pure insanity!  So they don't agree with prostitutes being labeled with the "SEX OFFENDER" on their drivers license, and being shamed for life on the online hit-list, but for all others, it's okay?  No, if it's wrong for one group, it's wrong for all, period, end of story.  The sex offender registry is for sex crimes, is it not?  And prostitution is a sex crime, is it not?  Also, do they still label consensual sex among kids a sex crime and put them on the registry?

In June. Gov. Bobby Jindal signed HB 141 (PDF), sponsored by Rep. Charmaine Marchand Stiaes, D-New Orleans, to remove sex offender registration from the SCAN statute. The law equalizes the penalties for both SCAN and prostitution, so those convicted of either (or both) face the same penalties, including not having to register as a sex offender.