When he explained the circumstances behind his conviction, they did not believe him, Mr. When he was released, people inevitably found out he was on the registry. “I was in prison for something that I didn’t even realize or know was a crime,” Mr. Still, he was charged with one count of a “crime against nature” and sentenced to five to 10 years in prison. “The Gem County police reports reflect that the sex was consensual,” according to Mr. Two months later, the police learned that he had had sex with two other teenagers, both 16, at the ranch. Menges was living in a foster program at a ranch in Gem County and stayed on as an employee when he turned 18.
#Fighting pokemon gay sex registration#
“The decision suggests that states cannot require sex-offender registration based on convictions under outdated and now unconstitutional ‘crimes against nature’ laws,” he said. Menges’s case, but Anthony Johnstone, a professor at the University of Montana Alexander Blewett III School of Law, said it could serve as a road map for people convicted under similar circumstances. “Law enforcement has no valid interest in keeping track of such persons’ whereabouts.” “Under Montana’s constitutional scheme, having consensual intimate sexual contact with a person of the same sex does not render someone a public safety threat to the community,” he wrote. Menges suffered under Montana’s statute outweighed the public’s interest in keeping his name on the registry. Menges to register as a sex offender had caused him “significant” hardships, like being denied housing and employment. Christensen, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, said that the Montana statute that required Mr. Menges had no right to file a complaint in Montana.īut on Tuesday, Judge Dana L. Prosecutors in Montana argued that until the Idaho case was resolved, Mr. Menges and another man who was forced to register as a sex offender because he was convicted 20 years ago in another state for performing oral sex on his wife. of Idaho, filed a federal lawsuit challenging Idaho’s law on behalf of Mr. Today, eight states still have anti-sodomy laws on the books but only three states - Idaho, Mississippi and South Carolina - have laws requiring sex offender registration for people convicted of sodomy, said Matthew Strugar, one of Mr. Supreme Court ruling that said such laws were unconstitutional and failed to recognize that same-sex couples were “entitled to respect for their private lives.” Many states, including Montana, eliminated broad laws against sodomy and oral sex in the 1990s. Menges’s legal battle also comes amid a larger struggle over laws that have historically been used to discriminate against L.G.B.T.Q. “But in Randy’s case it’s been more horrifying.” The registry “thoroughly ruins someone’s life to the point that it almost discourages rehabilitation for some folks,” Mx. They were created to warn communities about sexual predators who have been released from prison, but they have been criticized by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and criminologists for pushing people to the margins of society while doing little to keep the public safe.