A man who was forced to register as a sex offender for having consensual sex with another man in South Carolina has filed a lawsuit against the state to have his name removed from the list of sex offenders, the Post and Courier reported.
The man identified as
John Doe
, an alias to protect his identity, was convicted more than 20 years ago under South Carolina's anti-sodomy laws.
The law prohibited certain sexual acts that were traditionally related to homosexuality.
This type of laws that punished gay sexual relations
were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2003 for being discriminatory.
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The man's conviction was overturned after the court ruling.
However, South Carolina still requires people convicted before 2003 of violating that discriminatory law to register as sex offenders.
Due to reciprocity laws, a person registered as a sex offender in one state must register as such in any other state they move to.
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The attorney for the man who brought the lawsuit against South Carolina, Matthew Strugar, said that being registered as a sex offender has deeply harmed his client in almost every aspect of his life.
"The registration requirements, in a way, take over your life," Strugar told the aforementioned newspaper.
The registration requirements, in a way, take over your life "
Matthew Strugar Attorney
Your client must report to the sheriff's office twice a year and must provide detailed information about himself: he must tell him where he lives, where he works, his vehicle details, each account he has used on the internet and also a sample of your fingerprints.
According to the aforementioned media, there are 18 other people in South Carolina who are registered as sex offenders for having been convicted under discriminatory laws against gay people.
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Strugar, who represents another client, Randall Menges, who was forced to register as a sex offender for a conviction under an Idaho antisodomy law in 1994, also sued the state of Montana last year to remove his name from the offender list. sexual.
"I am outraged that in 2021 we still have what is essentially a registry of people who have or had gay sex," Strugar said in an interview with our sister network NBC News in April of last year.
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