23 October 2008

This is where I live

Most everyone int he pervy community knows that Alabama is the last state in the US to ban the same of sex toys.
In 1998, Alabama enacted a statute that forbade the distribution, possession for distribution, or offer to distribute devices "designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of the human genital organs[.]"
This law was challenged in 1999, but was upheld by judges worried about "public morality."

Alabama law also still prosecutes sodomy, and yes, cunnilingus is included under it.
The first reported sodomy case (with a human) was Woods v. State, in 1914. This case had to decide if fellatio constituted a violation of the law. The Alabama Court of Appeals decided unanimously that it was. Lifting verbatim from the Illinois Honselman decision (q.v.), the Court decided that fellatio was a crime against nature, without giving any analysis for its conclusion.

In the next reported sodomy case, Brown v. State, from 1945, the Alabama Supreme Court dealt with the issue of cunnilingus and the crime against nature statute. In an opinion notable for its lack of analysis, the Court decided that cunnilingus was just as much a crime against nature as fellatio.

And, my personal favorite,
In 1935, trying to expand the existing therapeutic sterilization law, Alabama attempted to go the rest of the country one better with a bill to include

"those suffering from perversions, constitutional psychopathic personalities or marked departures from normal mentality[.]"

This group included any inmate of a penal institution or insane asylum whose "physical, mental or moral condition" would be improved and who was a

"sexual pervert, Sadist, homosexualist, Masochist, Sodomist, or any other grave form of sexual perversion [sic]."


The sterilization law was struck down as unconstitutional, BUT:
In 1951, Alabama joined the chorus of states singing the praises of psychopathic offender laws by enacting its own statute in which anyone convicted of a sex offense could be referred for a psychiatric examination if believed to be a criminal sexual psychopathic person. If so found, the individual could be committed to an institution until "fully and permanently" recovered from the psychopathy. If recovered and discharged, the prisoner was to be placed on probation "for such reasonable time as the circumstances may justify."
In 1961, Alabama revised its psychopathic offender law to eliminate the need for a criminal conviction to trigger the operation of the law. One merely had to be "charged with" a sexual offense in order to have proceedings instituted.

(This was deemed unconstitutional in 1973.)

Alabama passed a comprehensive criminal code revision in 1977.
The sodomy law was changed to "sexual misconduct," which outlawed "deviate sexual conduct."
The definition of "deviate sexual conduct" was

any act of sexual gratification between persons not married to each other, involving the sex organs of one person and the mouth or anus of another.

Consent was no defense,and the penalty was set at up to one year in jail. In addition, a "public lewdness" provision was enacted to prohibit "any lewd act in a public place" which the offender "knows is likely to be observed by others who would be affronted or alarmed." Thus, simple acts like kissing or hand holding could get a Gay man or Lesbian into trouble.

All of this comes from The History of Sodomy Laws in the US, and references are there.

Yeah. And I live here.
Although in Alabama's defense, although I can't find a date of revocation, the sodomy laws are no longer on the books- I've checked. Only one which protects minors (ages 12-16) from sodomy by an older person (over the age of 16) is still present. This is most likely due to the Lawrence v. Texas case which ruled unconstitutional all state sodomy laws.

2 comments:

  1. I smile at liberal ingenuity every time I sign an acknowledgment that my purchase is solely for "novelty" purposes and that I have no intentions of using the shiny purple dildo as an actual sex toy.

    It's shameful that the store owners have to present such and worry about if they will have to defend that disclaimer's compliance with the statute in court one day ...

    ReplyDelete
  2. WOW .. the government owns my pussy.... the government owns my pleasure, my bliss, my left arm, my ....... wow....
    i sodomize all the fukking time...

    ReplyDelete

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