The Death of Tyrone Garner

By Keith Boykin, in sexuality
Tuesday, September 12 2006, 6:26PM

Tyrone GarnerTyrone Garner, the African American plaintiff in the historic Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court case, has died. Garner, along with his partner John Warner, challenged the constitutionality of a Texas statute that outlawed homosexual sodomy. The case was finally settled by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 in a landmark decision that struck down all state laws prohibiting homosexual intercourse.

Before that decision, conservatives cited the criminalization of gay sex as an excuse to justify discrimination against gays and lesbians. After that decision, the religious right lost a major argument in the battle to deny civil rights to gays and lesbians.

Garner and his partner were arrested in their own apartment in Houston, Texas while engaged in consensual sexual activity. The two men were tried and convicted of "deviate sexual intercourse." After a five-year court battle, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed their convictions in 2003.

Note: In the Supreme Court case, Garner is identified as "Tyron Garner." However, in news accounts published today, he is indentified as "Tyrone Garner with an "e" at the end of his name.

Comments (16) reveal

Comments conceal

nhlanhla
September 12 2006, 7:08PM

Sounds like he was one of the great pioneers. So long-live.

nhlanhla
September 12 2006, 7:10PM

Sounds like he was one of the great pioneers. Long-Live.

Greling
September 12 2006, 9:42PM

What follows is the issue of his marriage rights. Where will Mr. Garner's posessions go. Will his family do him an injustice under the full protection of Texas law or will his surviving partner have to take up the role of plaintiff in yet another lankmark Supreme Court case?

algie
September 12 2006, 10:28PM

my prayers goes out to his partner and i remember that case like it was yesterday

Steve
September 12 2006, 10:55PM

May we all have such courage. Rest in peace.

james
September 13 2006, 4:07AM

It's sad that he has passed. How did he die?

theeunuch
September 13 2006, 4:37PM

How weird is it that keithboykin.com broke the story of Mr. Garner's death?
Even the Houston Chronicle, where Mr. Garner lives, has nothing on his death.

The Empress
September 13 2006, 5:48PM

May he rest in peace. I feel he fought a good fight. He started this orange now who's gonna finish peeling it?

Richard J. Rosendall
September 14 2006, 8:28AM

Pardon the corrections, but Garner's first name was spelled Tyron (without a final "e"), and his partner's name was John Lawrence, not John Warner. His death at such a young age is very sad.

robert moore
September 14 2006, 2:10PM

I was wondering were Lawrence and Garner partners? I went to Lambda Legal's website from another blog I believe Towleroad and it indicated that were just sex partners

FRE
September 15 2006, 3:23PM

There's a link to an article about the supreme court case:

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47025

I have no way to evaluate the accuracy of the article, but it is interesting.

Juston
September 15 2006, 7:33PM

John Lawrence and Tyron Garner were not couple. They just happened to be having sex the night they were arrested. A few days after his death, Tryon's family didn't even think John Lawrence knew that Tryon had died and didn't believe that the two had even been in touch over the past few years. In fact, Tyron (the legal spelling of his name, though he preferred the spelling of Tyrone) died alone and rather poor. His story is a very sad one for a modest man who did such a brave and noble thing for our community.

Richard J. Rosendall
September 15 2006, 9:01PM

As I recall, Hardwick of Bowers v. Hardwick also died in obscurity. The lesbian couple in the Massachusetts Goodrich case broke up. Being involved in a landmark case is beginning to look like a curse.

carmen
September 18 2006, 5:54AM

such courage ..much respect sadness and sorrow ,but im a firm beliver in fighting for what you believe in..

psmike[TypeKey Profile Page]
September 19 2006, 10:31AM

Richard, I don't think it's a curse. People die and they divorce. Life, death, love goes on. Folks like these are often the true heroes. Planning an action, with money, fame, and especially, secuity on your side is brave. Lending your name to something that gains you personally little but a further difficult journey....that's heroics. These are real people: not the Jim McGreevey's, not the celebutantes treated as heroes on places like Towleroad, not the HRC tuxedo crowd. God bless Mr. Garner. He got busted fucking. He fought back. That's real heroism. We need more of him in this world.

r
February 9 2007, 8:20AM

as a hero, he should have been on the front page of the advocate and other mags of "the community"