Why Sodomy Laws Matter for Everyone

Well, I accom­plished some­thing today. I made a room full of red­neck frat boys real­ize that a Supreme Court deci­sion about two gay men actu­al­ly has bear­ing on their own lives. 

I chose to talk about the Octo­ber 2003 Supreme Court deci­sion in Lawrence v. Texas. It over­turned the Texas sodomy law and reversed the pre­vi­ous deci­sion in Bow­ers v. Hardwick.

It was very obvi­ous that these kids had NO idea that there are laws on the books in Geor­gia that make it ille­gal for any­one (not just gay peo­ple) to have any kind of sex out­side of mar­riage, or that oral sex is ille­gal for EVERYONE.

A deci­sion that means the sodomy laws can’t be enforced is good news for every­one. But they, like so many peo­ple, either ignored the news of the deci­sion back in Octo­ber or just thought it was for “those queers.”

I also hit the his­to­ry of laws about sex, the fact that mar­riage was whol­ly a private/religious mat­ter with no civ­il involve­ment ’til about 1500 years ago, etc.

The research was actu­al­ly inter­est­ing. I could have talked FAR longer than I did.

I got an A- on con­tent, B- on pre­sen­ta­tion because I went “over time.” I was with­in the guide­lines on the syl­labus, but he decid­ed that the speech should be 4–6 min­utes instead of the 5–7 that were on the syl­labus. Grrr.

Cyn is Rick's wife, Katie's Mom, and Esther & Oliver's Mémé. She's also a professional geek, avid reader, fledgling coder, enthusiastic gamer (TTRPGs), occasional singer, and devoted stitcher.
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