Sodomy

Sodomy is a term of religious origin used to characterize certain sexual acts. The term is most commonly used to describe the specific act of anal sex between two males, or between a male and a female. The term "sodomy" also may include non-coital sexual acts such as oral sex and other paraphilia. It is sometimes used to describe human-animal sexual intercourse (bestiality). Sodomy laws forbidding certain types of sex acts have been found in some pre-modern cultures and are prevalent in some industrialized nations as well.

Template:Wiktionarypar The term sodomy derives from the name of the ancient city of Sodom, which according to a common interpretation of the Bible, was destroyed by God for its sins (see Sodom and Gomorrah). In today's common language it identifies the practice of anal or oral intercourse.

Alternate understandings of the sins of Sodom

In the book of Ezekiel, God speaks through the prophet saying, "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good." (16:49-50, KJV). From the Biblical perspective, the sins of Sodom were many, though not all were explicit in the narrative account, and the act of attempted homosexual gang rape may be read into it, serving to emphasise the Sodomites' depravity rather than uniquely characterise it. According to recent critiques by some liberal Christians, the sins of Sodom were related more to violation of hospitality laws than sexual sins. An explicit scriptural connection between homosexual aggression and Sodom is found only in the Qur'an, though the city name 'Sodom' does not appear there. The Sodomites are referred to as "the people of Lut (Lot)." Lot is the nephew of the Hebrew/Arabic patriarch Abraham and, in the Judaic Sodom stories, is head of the only family allowed by God to survive Sodom's destruction. In the Qur'an, he is also the divinely appointed national prophet to his people. Since their national name was unrecorded and "people of Lot" was the only available designation, the Islamic equivalent of 'sodomy' has become 'liwat,' which could be roughly translated as "lottishness" (see Homosexuality and Islam).

First century opinions

The epistle of Jude in the New Testament, however, echoes the Genesis narrative and recalls mainly the sexually immoral aspects of Sodom's sins: "...just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire" (v. 7, ESV). The phrase rendered "unnatural desire" is literally translated "strange flesh," but it is not entirely clear what it refers to. The ESV translators supply one plausible paraphrase in making the phrase refer to the illicit sexual activity of the Genesis account (cf. the language of the epistle to the Romans 1:21-32), but another theory is that it is a simply reference to the "strange flesh" of the intended rape victims, who were angels, not men.

The first known use of the term sodomy used in a more general sense to mean "crimes against nature" is found in the writings of Jewish historian Josephus (circa A.D. 96) as he summarizes the Genesis narrative: "About this time the Sodomites grew proud, on account of their riches and great wealth; they became unjust towards men, and impious towards God, in so much that they did not call to mind the advantages they received from him: they hated strangers, and abused themselves with Sodomitical practices" (Antiquities 1.11.1). The final element of his assessment goes beyond the Biblical data, even in the New Testament. Despite the inaccuracy, this meaning is the primary one used today.

Banning of sodomy in the United States

From the earliest times in the United States, sodomy (variously defined) was prohibited in the United States, although some historians feel that early sodomy laws were mainly used to address issues of non-consensual behavior, or public behavior. Historians also note that sodomy laws did not only deal with homosexual acts until the 1970s.

In the 1950s, all states had some form of law criminalizing sodomy, and in 1986 the United States Supreme Court ruled that nothing in the United States Constitution prohibits a state from prohibiting sodomy. However, states legislators and state courts had started to repeal or overturn their sodomy laws since the 1970s, and thus in 2003, only 10 states had laws prohibiting all sodomy, with penalties ranging from 1 to 15 years imprisonment. Additionally, four other states had laws that specifically prohibited same-sex sodomy. That year the United States Supreme Court reversed its 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick ruling and in Lawrence v. Texas, invalidated these laws as being an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, and violated the equal protection clause. See Sodomy law.

However, Lawrence v. Texas has not changed the Uniform Code of Military Justice Article that bans all servicemen and women from engaging in "sodomy." The United States Armed Forces Code defines sodomy as, " (a) Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration , however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense. (b) Any person found guilty of sodomy shall be punished as a court-martial may direct."

While the definition of the sodomy clearly prohibits heterosexual servicemen and women from engaging in oral or anal sex with a consenting adult in private, the law is rarely invoked against heterosexuals for such conduct and is mainly used against homosexual servicemen and women who engage in sodomy.

Evolution of the term in other languages

In modern German, the word Sodomie has no connotation of anal or oral sex, and refers specifically to zoophilia; it has connotations similar to the English-language word "bestiality". (See Paragraph 175, version of June 28, 1935.) The same goes for the Norwegian word sodomi. Sodomy, therefore, can be considered being a false friend.

See also

• Homosexual sexual practices
• Bestiality
• Brokeback Mountain

External links

• Sodomy Laws Around the World