Mike Bowers

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Michael Joseph Bowers was the long-serving Attorney General of Georgia before switching parties and mounting an unsuccessful campaign for Governor. He now practices law with Balch & Bingham.

His political career ended abruptly when, during his 1997 campaign for the 1998 Republican gubernatorial nomination, he was compelled to admit he had a decade-long extramarital affair with his secretary, a former Playboy Club waitress. Anne Davis stated the romance had been active as recently as six weeks prior to Bowers' June 5 announcement [1]

His admission was particularly devastating to his political future because he had made his reputation in part by falsely portraying himself as a vigorous defender of Georgia's moral standards, prosecuting a gay who had been arrested for actions in his own home in a case which went to the United States Supreme Court, Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)[2]. The Georgia law under which Bowers had prosecuted Hardwick was overturned in a subsequent case by the Georgia Supreme Court in 1998.[3] The U.S. Supreme Court later essentially overturned its Bowers ruling in a 2003 decision, Lawrence v. Texas.

However, during Bowers' political career, the Georgia law remained on the books and legally enforceable. Bowers thus followed up the Michael Hardwick prosecution in 1991 by rescinding a hiring offer to a lesbian, Robin Shahar, for an Assistant Attorney General position, on the grounds that her sexual conduct was illegal and would interfere with her ability to enforce the state's laws.[4] Bowers had been made aware of her orientation when she planned to have a religious commitment ceremony, akin to a wedding, with her partner. Though the ceremony could have no civil impact — she and her partner could not be married under the law — her plan served as proof positive of her sexual orientation, and presumptive proof of illegal sexual acts.

At the time of the Hardwick prosecution and the Shahar firing, adultery was also illegal in Georgia. Bowers' 1997 admission of the long-standing, on-going affair with Davis during his prosecution of Hardwick and his persecution of Shahar was perceived by the press and the electorate as fatal hypocrisy. In a 1999 ABC News broadcast, Shahar later summed up public sentiment, even among those Georgians who did not necessarily support equal rights for gay people, when she said, "Mr. Bowers penalized me for being honest while he rewarded himself for lying."[5]

[edit] References

• Court Allows Job Denial After Lesbian Marriage January 13, 1998 Associated Press article gives detailed history of Shahar litigation
• Infamous Sodomy Law Struck Down December 16, 1998 article in The Village Voice by Nat Hentoff regarding Georgia Supreme Court decision
• Tales From The Front Lines October 27, 1998 article in The Advocate by Susan Biemesderfer about Robin Shahar