Couple Never Had Sex

A new book claims the plaintiffs in the landmark 2003 Supreme Court case that legalized gay sex weren’t a couple and never had sex.

Writer Dale Carpenter details the 1998 arrest of Tyron Garner and John Geddes Lawrence in his new book, Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas. While police charged Garner and Lawrence with having anal sex after they burst into Lawrence's Houston apartment following a 911 call by Garner’s boyfriend at the time — drunk and angry that Garner and Lawrence were allegedly flirting — both Garner and Lawrence say they weren’t even touching.

“There was no sex,” insisted Lawrence in 2011, according to Flagrant Conduct. “In fact, he said, Garner and he were not physically touching one another, and were seated as much as fifteen [feet] apart.”

Garner and Lawrence’s claims hold more water when considering the highly inconsistent police report, with officers having very different recollections of what they encountered in the apartment.

Garner and Lawrence, promised that their identities would remain private, allowed the case to move forward, correctly anticipating it would change history. Read more here.