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Topic: Sodomy laws in the United States

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	CNN.com - Supreme Court strikes down Texas sodomy law - Nov. 18, 2003
		In 37 states, the statutes have been repealed by lawmakers or blocked by state courts, the AP reported.
		Of the 13 states with sodomy laws, four -- Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri -- prohibit oral and anal sex between same-sex couples.
		Laws that might be most vulnerable would be ones that govern fornication and adultery, said Diana Hassel, associate professor of law at Roger Williams University.
	www.cnn.com /2003/LAW/06/26/scotus.sodomy (976 words)

	The History of Sodomy Laws in the United States - Alaska (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		Thus, the law was expanded to cover "unnatural" carnal copulation by means of the mouth (what constituted "natural" carnal copulation by means of the mouth is unknown) and sodomy committed "otherwise," and the maximum penalty was doubled to 10 years.
		The Court discussed, with apparent disapproval, earlier case law on the subject of sodomy and the "unwillingness of the courts" to discuss the vagueness issue.
		The sodomy law was weakened greatly by court decisions, the state constitution was amended to grant a broad and specific right of privacy to citizens, and the criminal code was revised to eliminate penalties for consensual sexual activity.
	www.sodomylaws.org /sensibilities/alaska.htm (1118 words)

	LAWRENCE V. TEXAS
		In affirming, the State Court of Appeals held, inter alia, that the statute was not unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
		Early American sodomy laws were not directed at homosexuals as such but instead sought to prohibit nonprocreative sexual activity more generally, whether between men and women or men and men.
		The longstanding criminal prohibition of homosexual sodomy upon which Bowers placed such reliance is as consistent with a general condemnation of nonprocreative sex as it is with an established tradition of prosecuting acts because of their homosexual character.
	supct.law.cornell.edu /supct/html/02-102.ZS.html (1241 words)

	Laws Against Sodomy
		Groups lobbying for repeal of sodomy laws across the country say that the laws provide the underpinnings for discrimination against gay men and lesbians in a wide range of areas, including employment, child custody, and housing.
		Sodomy originally was banned in every state, but since 1961 the laws have been repealed or ruled unconstitutional in 26 states.
		"Sodomy laws are used to say that gay people are criminals and, therefore, not entitled to constitutional protections," said New York law professor Aruther Leonard, author of "Sexuality and the Law." The tendency of judges to equate homosexuality with sodomy cost one Virginia father the custody of his 9-year-old daughter.
	www.lectlaw.com /files/sex14.htm (1388 words)

	Sodomy Laws (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		Sodomy laws are any of the many laws which criminalize non-reproductive, non-commercial, consensual sex between adults in private.
		California's justices overturned state law requiring adults 21 years or older who are convicted of having oral sex with 16- and 17-year-olds to automatically register as a sex offender for life.
		The United States joined with four of the world's most repressive regimes to reject an application by two international LGBT groups seeking to join a UN agency that advises the world body on economics and social issues.
	www.sodomylaws.org (964 words)

	On 26 June, 2003 the United States Supreme Court made a landmark decision against the state of Texas’ law against ...
		So if a state wants to hire someone to do a job, and there’s a clear difference in terms of who is better qualified or who will best help serve the state’s interests in that job, then such a difference is ok. It doesn’t violate equal protection.
		It’s impossible to prove that such a law is intended to harm such people, but it’s likely that anyone introducing such a law would have had such a desire, particularly when the Fourteenth Amendment was constructed to prevent just this sort of use of law.
		Certain privileges are given to each person residing in the United States, including freedom of speech and a right to dissent, and citizens are given the right to vote to affect who will be in decision-making positions.
	web.syr.edu /~jrpierce/sodomyruling.htm (4132 words)

	The History of Sodomy Laws in the United States - Introduction (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		As several courts have stated, "sodomy" is derived from the Biblical reference to the destruction of the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah.
		During this era, reform of sex laws was advanced on numerous fronts, leading to the repeal or court invalidation of a number of sodomy laws, not to mention a revolution in attitudes of many in society.
		Since statutory consensual sodomy laws have invalidated, it is not possible for a state to use a common-law provision to prosecute consensual sodomy, either.
	www.sodomylaws.org /sensibilities/introduction.htm (12309 words)

	POAAFA 1998 News
		Under the law, anyone who "has sexual intercourse with people of the same sex or commits the crime against nature with a human being" is guilty of a felony and liable for penalties of up to $1,000 or 10 years in prison.
		The lawsuit charges that Puerto Rico's sodomy law was used to deny Sanchez De Leon her constitutionally protected free speech rights and that she and her life partner, who is identified in court papers as Jane Doe, now fear arrest and prosecution under Article 103 of the Penal Code of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
		Laws criminalizing sexual intimacy, including sodomy, were once on the books in all 50 states, but many have been repealed or struck down by the courts as unconstitutional.
	members.tripod.com /~THEE_POAAFA/archives/1998/alert624q.htm (1393 words)

	United States Sodomy Laws
		States which attempt a rational explanation claim that these acts harm the "moral welfare" of society and they have decided that all harm to "moral welfare" can be best remedied by strict penalties imposed against the individuals who partake in those behaviors.
		Individuals who are both married and living with the complainant cannot be found guilty of rape under conditions in 18.2-61 or of forcible sodomy under the conditions in 18.2-67.1 unless having received serious physical injury from the result of the sexual behavior forced on them against their will.
		Furthermore, state laws are subject to change at any time, so you should periodically review them in order to determine if your behavior remains in compliance with them.
	www.sodomy.org /laws (939 words)

	Attorney taking on sodomy law: Ex-Agnew staffer decries governmental intrusion
		Sodomy is a felony punishable by a fine of up to $2,500 and up to five years in prison.
		While lawmakers publicly voiced concerns that the state's anti-sodomy law is an old-fashioned attempt to regulate private behavior, few were willing to go on record as a supporter of a particular sex act.
		In other states, where the laws were aimed at homosexuals-Montana, Kentucky and Tennessee, for instance-high courts have also ruled them to be unconstitutional invasions of privacy.
	www.walnet.org /trailboys/news/times_dispatch-990613.html (1476 words)

	United States
		The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the body charged with monitoring compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has specifically noted that the existence of sodomy laws in the United States is a "serious infringement of private life" and has "consequences.
		Nor is any state, territory or possession of the United States, or any Indian tribe required to give effect to a same-sex relationship that is treated as a marriage under the laws of another state, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such relationship.
		Health and Safety Code § 163.002(8) (recommending that the state's model public health education curriculum include emphasis, provided in a "factual manner and from a public health perspective, that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public and that homosexual conduct is a criminal offence").
	www.hrw.org /reports/2002/usa0902/USA0902-06.htm (2898 words)

	The History of Sodomy Laws in the United States - Vermont
		The court further stated that the punishment by fine, imprisonment, or both, was entirely up to the discretion of the trial court.
		Vermont passed one of the earlier psychopathic offender laws, and its first attempt was so broad in its coverage that it needed to be revised at the next session of the legislature to limit its coverage to felonies and repeat misdemeanors.
		This would allow the violator to be sent to the state prison, the house of correction, or a county jail, at the trial court’s discretion.
	www.sodomylaws.org /sensibilities/vermont.htm (1074 words)

	-- Beliefnet.com
		In defending the law, Texas argued to the lower courts and will argue again to the highest court in the land both that the government can legally enforce public morality and that its Homosexual Conduct Law is a valid expression of the moral values of the citizens of Texas.
		He pointed out that sodomy laws in the United States are borrowed from the common law of England, a body of law that developed out of ecclesiastical law during the Protestant Reformation.
		Religiously based regulation of sexuality may have been acceptable in a nation with an established church, such as England, but the United States is supposed to be based on the disestablishment of any official church and on the freedom to practice one's religion, or to practice no religion at all.
	www.beliefnet.com /story/123/story_12360_2.html (506 words)

	Sodomy laws - dKosopedia
		Sodomy laws are laws that prohibit consentual oral and/or anal sex.
		Historically, "sodomy" has been used to define any sexual practices beyond male/female missionary position intercourse.
		In the United States, it was not uncommon to be executed for acts under this definition of sodomy up through the 1800's.
	www.dkosopedia.com /wiki/Sodomy_laws (93 words)

	Reason Magazine - Nonstandard Deviations
		For gays and many others who support their cause, these laws are the ultimate expression of state-sanctioned intolerance and discrimination—not to mention an assertion of the government's power to intrude into the most private area of our lives.
		In the early 1960s, sodomy laws existed in every state of the union; today, they survive in a dwindling handful of states.
		Whatever one thinks of such a position, sodomy laws would seem to provide these conservatives with the perfect occasion to demonstrate the sincerity of their pro-tolerance stance.
	www.reason.com /news/show/31998.html (640 words)

	GLAD Files Challenge to Massachusetts Sodomy Laws
		In a brief ruling, a unanimous court found that two provisions of Massachusetts law that provide criminal penalties of up to 5 and 20 years for convictions for oral and anal sex, respectively, may not be enforced against persons who are engaged in such intimacy as long as the individuals did not intend public exposure.
		The court today clarified that these antiquated laws may not be used to intrude on individuals’ rights to engage in common acts of intimacy in private settings.
		Presently 14 states have sodomy laws, only 4 of which apply exclusively to same-sex conduct.
	www.glad.org /News_Room/press48-2-21-02.shtml (461 words)

	Joe Sobran's Washington Watch -- Controlling the Court (print version)
		The sodomy ruling had no more to do with the Constitution than the Court's abortion rulings have; once again the Court has merely adopted a trendy view shared by the chattering classes and called it the law of the land.
		Besides, the sodomy ruling wouldn't be reversed by putting a definition of marriage into the Constitution; on the contrary, such an amendment would presuppose its legitimacy.
		To read Kennedy's opinion in the sodomy case is to hear the confident voice of sheer power, assured that it will face no consequences for whatever it may choose to say, knowing that even its whims have weight.
	www.sobran.com /wanderer/w2003/w030710.htm (1347 words)

	Gay,Lesbian,Straight Education Network: Lawrence and Garner v. Texas: Sodomy Law, Equality and Privacy
		A whole body of laws, called "sodomy laws," were instituted in colonial times, threatening individuals with penalties ranging up to death for engaging in certain sexual activities with other consenting adults.
		The Texas state courts upheld the convictions, allowing the law to stand based on Texas' desire to enforce moral standards, and the men were fined.
		This, as a general rule, should counsel against attempts by the State, or a court, to define the meaning of the relationship or to set its boundaries absent injury to a person or abuse of an institution the law protects.
	www.glsen.org /cgi-bin/iowa/educator/library/record/1640.html (3137 words)

	T&A: Define Marriage
		The Supreme Court's recent decision in Lawrence vs. Texas, which struck down sodomy laws in the United States, is viewed as heralding a new age for gay rights, and may even pave the way for gays and lesbians to marry, which would likely provide additional economic boost to the ceremonial balance sheets.
		The United States and Sweden shared a rate of 55 divorces to 100 marriages in 2002.
		When states did relax the ban on interracial marriage, the licenses were used to track the couples.
	www.thinkandask.com /news/marriage.html (1479 words)

	CNN.com - States determine marriage laws - Jan. 13, 2004
		Courts in Alaska followed Hawaii's lead, and in those two states the court decisions were followed by the adoption of constitutional amendments limiting marriage to heterosexual couples.
		The Hawaii ruling prompted several states to pass pre-emptive laws forbidding gays from marrying, often also barring the recognition of a same-sex marriage performed in another state.
		That ruling struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriage, which the court also said violated 14th Amendment guarantees of equal protection.
	www.cnn.com /2003/LAW/11/18/states.marriage.laws (303 words)

	Case: Sanchez v. Puerto Rico (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		Lambda Legal was cocounsel in an ACLU lawsuit challenging Puerto Rico’s sodomy laws, which applied to both same-sex and different-sex couples, but criminalized a broader range of sexual intimacy for lesbians and gay men.
		Puerto Rico argued that Sanchez and her codefendants did not have the right to challenge the sodomy law because they had never been prosecuted under it, but the trial court rejected Puerto Rico’s attempt to dismiss the case.
		Harwick and overturned remaining sodomy laws in the United States.
	lambdalegal.org /cgi-bin/iowa/cases/record?record=156 (389 words)

	Yale Law School \| Faculty \| Publications
		This book is a social, intellectual, political, and legal history of sodomy laws in the United States, from the Civil War to the present.
		By the mid-twentieth century, these laws were associated with “homosexuals and other sex perverts,” and moralists (ranging from J. Edgar Hoover to Earl Warren) deployed sodomy laws to inaugurate an anti-homosexual terror unprecedented in American history.
		Although the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision striking down Texas’s homosexual sodomy law seemed to be a breakthrough for gay rights, that decision is better read as a signpost that the body politics debate has shifted, away from private sex between consenting adults, and toward marriage and family.
	www.law.yale.edu /faculty/1499.htm (702 words)

	SIVACRACY.NET: Sodomy!
		Texas case, in which the Supreme Court ruled that sodomy laws are unconstitutional and unenforceable when applied to consenting adults.
		"...[Liberty] counsel[s] against attempts by the State, or a court, to define the meaning of the relationship or to set its boundaries absent injury to a person or abuse of an institution the law protects.
		Here's a site that tracks sodomy laws in the United States and around the world.
	www.nyu.edu /classes/siva/archives/003024.html (524 words)

	Balkinization
		The Law School's educational judgment that such diversity is essential to its educational mission is one to which we defer.
		The Law School's assessment that diversity will, in fact, yield educational benefits is substantiated by respondents and their amici.
		O'Connor's opinion in Grutter also made clear that the states do not have to adopt race netural alternatives (like ten percent plans, which are not really race neutral in any case) before they consider race conscious affirmative action in admissions.
	balkin.blogspot.com /2003_06_22_balkin_archive.html (3877 words)

	Gay Legal Pad
		A database of the laws of the United States in force as of 26 January 1994, from the most recent version of the Government Printing Office CD-ROM.
		United States Sodomy Laws and the Age of Consent
		A state by state list of sodomy laws and the age of consent in each state.
	www.cs.cmu.edu /~dtw/gay/legal.html (444 words)

	Apologetics Press - The Homosexual Hubbub
		These developments were inevitable in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s historically and constitutionally unprecedented elimination of state sodomy laws (“Lawrence,” 2003).
		The high court’s decision was a reversal of its 1986 decision that upheld State sodomy laws and reinforced the historic stance that homosexuality is not a constitutional right.
		Sodomy, the longtime historical term for same-sex relations, was treated as a criminal offense in all of the original thirteen colonies, and eventually every one of the fifty states (see Robinson, 2003; “Sodomy Laws,” 2003).
	www.apologeticspress.org /articles/2226 (696 words)

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