The executive director of the Kansas Equality Coalition urged members of the Kansas Senate judiciary committee today to approve a bill that would repeal a Kansas law prohibiting sexual activity for same-sex couples.

Thomas Witt testified before the committee to support the bill, which includes several amendments to Kansas’ criminal code. As the code stands now, sodomy between members of the same sex over 16 years of age is illegal, but a United States Supreme Court ruling in 2003 declared such laws against same-sex activity unconstitutional.

“The reality is this law standing on the books means gay and lesbian people are being harassed on a regular basis by public officials in the state,” Witt said, “and it needs to come to an end before somebody gets hurt or somebody gets sued.”

The bill is almost identical to one introduced to the Kansas House of Representatives last year. The amendment repealing the ban on same-sex sodomy was removed from the bill before it was voted down, 32 to 91, before the full house.

Ed Klumpp, a member of the criminal code recodification committee, said he thought that bill was defeated because of confusion surrounding a reworded smoking law. He added that house committees removed parts of the bill for two reasons: to save bed space in state prisons and to avoid “political hand grenades,” like the repealing of the sodomy law.

“It sounds pretty simple and straightforward until you start considering the political impact of those moves,” he said.

In January, Gov. Sam Brownback recommended 51 state laws, regulations and executive orders for repealing through his Office of the Repealer, which he created in 2011. The ban on same-sex sodomy, however, was not on that list.

The Kansas Equality Coalition expressed disappointment at the law’s absence in a statement, saying “There is nothing more unreasonable than keeping a law on the books that says every gay and lesbian Kansan belongs in jail.”

While many believe the ban on same-sex sodomy is essentially unenforceable, Witt said, the bill still creates problems. He presented a letter sent by the Internal Revenue Service to a man from south-central Kansas which cited the sodomy law in denying him head of household status because the man was in a domestic partnership with his male partner.