Under current law in Minnesota, sodomy, adultery and sex out of wedlock are illegal. A bill by Senator Donna Peterson, a Minneapolis democrat, would erase those laws, but would also make it illegal to engage in sex in public. Peterson told a Senate judiciary committee that her measure would create a law that’s needed and do away with laws that are both unfair and unenforced.

Opponents of the bill include religious and moral conservatives, whose members packed the hearing room holding placards which urged the committee to retain the sodomy laws as part of the fight against AIDS. Doctors and public health officials who work with AIDS patients say the sodomy laws create fear and apprehension that obstruct educational efforts to stop the disease. They say AIDS victims are also reluctant to disclose their sexual histories for fear of prosecution.

Proponents broaden the argument to include all adults regardless of sexual orientation. They say sexual choices made in private have no place in the law. Twenty-five other states have repealed similar laws in recent years.

The committee kept a public sex prohibition but favored repealing the sodomy, fornication, and adultery laws on an eleven to four vote. The bill now goes to the full Senate. A committee hearing in the House is scheduled for tonight. Meanwhile the sodomy law is under fire in the courts. The law was declared unconstitutional by a judge in Hennepin County district court last year. That ruling has been appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Includes comments from State Senator Donna Peterson of Minneapolis, Wayne Olhoft of the Berean League, Dr. Edward Ellinger of the Minnesota Public Health Association, Frances Strong, Joyce Alworth with Concerned Women for America, and gay activist Tim Campbell.