Time for a pop quiz. What do Idaho, Utah, Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana all have in common. Any ideas? Well apparently they all still have anti-sodomy laws on the statute books. I’m not just talking about sweaty hard bodied man on man depravity. These states also outlaw it for good clean living Christian married couples indulging in a little ass play (as God may or may not have intended, he’s not the best when it comes to clear communication). Of course since the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v’s Texas the laws are all unconstitutional and unenforceable, but that doesn’t stop the legislators keeping them on the books to send a message. That message presumably being ‘We’re the only ones that should be allowed to ass fuck the people who voted for us’.
I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. I was recently amazed to discover that the US had anti-miscegenation laws in 16 states right up until a Supreme Court decision in 1967. And Alabama didn’t get around to actually removing its version of them from their constitution until 2000. Both of those facts both astonished and depressed me. At that rate the anti-sodomy laws should finally be disappearing around 2036.
On a tangential note, I often find the stories behind these very significant Supreme Court decisions to be fascinating. The 1967 case, appropriately named Loving v’s Virginia, is an uplifting tale of a couple’s fight for their right to live together. The New York Times gave a good overview of it in the obituary of the wife in question. The background to the Lawrence v’s Texas case was very much less positive and uplifting, as described in this New Yorker book review. The only common theme was the police behaving like assholes (pardon the appropriate expression) in both of them.
I’ve no idea where the image below was shot, but they look like a couple having fun, and possibly violating a few local laws at the same time. Let us all hope that any handcuffs that appear will belong to her.
I found this on the Sensual Pegging Tumblr. You can see a larger version of it in the post there. Originally it’s from the Strapon Dreamer site.
I live in a state where gay marriage is legal…but much of BDSM is not, and police are to this day still raiding BDSM parties and club nights.
So when I do impact play scenes at home, I’m breaking the law; when I go to visit my girlfriend in Rhode Island and do the same thing, it’s legal.
Unlike the anti-sodomy and anti-miscegenation laws, the laws that make impact play illegal are much more recent and a part of the states anti-domestic violence framework. It’s not possible to consent to an assault in Massachusetts, which makes it easier for third parties to testify about domestic violence even when the victim will not.
That’s a really good point Lily. The law is all over the map when it comes to BDSM. It’d be a good topic for a post, not because I have any specific insight, but because I’m sure a lot of people are unaware of the kind of complexities that exist here. In a lot of places you cannot consent to be assaulted, which makes any kind of pain play illegal. Thanks for the comment and for highlighting this issue. I now feel the urge to do a bunch of research and reading around this topic!
-paltego