Botswana high court decriminalizes same-sex relations News
Botswana high court decriminalizes same-sex relations

The High Court in Botswana unanimously revoked colonial-era laws criminalizing gay sex Tuesday.

The court held that sections 164(a), 164(c), 165 and 167 of the penal code, which criminalize same-sex relations, are discriminatory and in conflict with the constitution. This section of the penal code includes as an offense “carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature,” and carries a maximum sentence of seven years.

In a landmark decision, the court held that “societal norms of heteronormativity cannot overrule the right to privacy.” Judge Michael Elburu added that “the state cannot be the sheriff in people’s bedrooms.”

This case was brought in March by 21-year-old University of Botswana student Letsweletse Motshidiemang, an activist who challenged the laws saying that society had changed since the penal code was enacted.

Many LGBTIQ+ groups were present when the decision was handed down and have praised the court for taking this step and acknowledging the dignity of LGBTIQ persons. UNAIDS lauded the decision as restoring “privacy, respect, and dignity to the country’s LGBT people.”

THIS DAY @ LAW

White supremacists overthrow government in Wilmington, North Carolina

A group of white supremacists overthrew the government of Wilmington, North Carolina on November 10, 1898, killing at least dozens of Black people in the process. The city's Republican government resigned after the 500-2,000 strong white mob burned the offices of a Black-owned newspaper and terrorized black neighborhoods. The new state Democratic government passed laws in 1899 disenfranchising Black voters across North Carolina. Learn more about the 1898 Wilmington Coup.

Supreme Court limited free speech in wartime

On November 10, 1919, the US Supreme Court ruled in Abrams v. United States that the federal government could criminalize speech if it was of a type tending to bring about harmful results, in this case, resistance to the United States war effort. In a powerful dissenting opinion, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes countered that even during wartime, free speech could only be curtailed when there was clear and "present danger of immediate evil or an intent to bring it about."

Leonid Brezhnev dies

On November 10, 1982, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died of a heart attack. He had served as leader of the USSR from October 1964 until his death. Following his death, the Soviet Union cycled through three more leaders during the 1980s until Mikhail Gorbachev allowed the country to dissolve in 1991. Read an obituary of Leonid Brezhnev from the New York Times.