Sodomy

Sodomy refers to a number of sexual acts that have traditionally been referred to as “crimes against nature.” In contemporary society, sodomy most commonly refers to anal sexual intercourse between two males. More broadly, it refers to other behaviors that have been classified as sexually immoral or deviant, including oral sex (fellatio or cunnilingus), any type of sexual penetration by a body part or object other than penetration of the vagina by the penis, and bestiality. Sodomy reflects dominant assumptions about what is socially and culturally acceptable in the context of sexual relations. The roots of these assumptions reflect what is thought to be “natural” and “normal,” and the idealization of penile-vaginal sexual intercourse for the purpose of procreation.

The word sodomy has meaning in both religious and legal contexts and derives from references to the ancient city of Sodom in the book of Genesis in the Bible. The story of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah tells of the visit of two angels to the house of Lot. Lot invited the angels to stay with him and he provided food for them, but before the angels went to bed, a crowd of men arrived at Lot's house, aggressively demanding to “know” the visitors. In some interpretations, “know” is translated from Hebrew as meaning “to have sex with.” The story continues by reporting that God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by raining burning sulfur down on them because of their sinfulness. This series of events has widely been cited as a key example of the condemnation of homosexuality in the Bible. Other scholars have challenged the interpretation of “to know” and instead argue that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah concerned inhospi-tality or disrespect for God's messengers. However, the former of these conflicting interpretations— alongside a small number of other biblical references to homosexuality—has been extremely influential in shaping laws, policies, and social attitudes in relation to homosexuality.

In a legal context, laws that prohibit sodomy between consenting adults have a long history worldwide. Sodomy laws were first introduced in America by colonists from England, where sodomy or buggery was at the time a crime punishable by death. The first colony to introduce these laws was the Virginia Colony in 1610. This crime carried the death penalty, but only applied to males. Other colonies followed suit in introducing sodomy laws, and by the time the United States had formed, each state had its own sodomy laws. The specific acts that these laws included and the maximum punishments varied between states.

Historically, sodomy laws reflected a Christian emphasis on preserving the sanctity of sexual intercourse to achieve procreation, and as such, often focused on heterosexual sexual behavior. However, in the latter third of the 20th century, sodomy laws started to target homosexual sexual relations. Some states repealed the section of sodomy laws that applied to sexual relations between a man and a woman, while upholding sodomy laws for same-sex sexual relations. The first state to repeal sodomy laws in their entirety was Illinois in 1961, and 20 other states did so in the 1970s. These changes typically formed part of a general modernization of criminal law, marked partly by the exclusion of sodomy from the American Law Institute's Moral Penal Code in 1955. These changes also reflected pressure from gay rights organizations, and the attention that civil liberties organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union drew to the importance of freedom and privacy.

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