spiraledfaun:
some of you are painfully unaware that part of the whole reason many kinksters are like “what happens in my or someone else’s bedroom is no one else’s business”
is because people have been arrested and put in fucking PRISON just for having gay sex in the privacy of their own homes. in the United States. this millennia.
if you think i’m joking, look up Lawrence v. Texas (2003). 14 out of the 50 US States STILL had laws on the books criminalizing sodomy–and yes, you could be imprisoned for multiple years and sometimes even life for repeat offenses.
in the years directly leading up to the landmark case, enforcement even in those 14 states varied, but it was absolutely weaponized against queer people, especially when stacked on top of other offenses to make up a longer sentence.
um so anyway, what happens between two or more consenting adults in the privacy of their own homes is none of my OR YOUR business, and i’m not fucking kidding!
Important additional context:
“Sodomy” does not, in a legal context, mean “anal sex.”
It means “any sexual act the court has decided is deviant.”
BDSM? Sodomy.
Crossdressing for sexual pleasure? Sodomy.
Jacking off to nude photos or video your consenting adult lover sent you of themselves? Sodomy.
Het oral sex? SODOMY!!!
If you’re starting to think “but how could anyone prove that happened without breaking down the door?”
Ha. Haha. Ahaha.
First, I’ll give you one guess how they did prove it.
Two, these were often scapegoat charges–basically they couldn’t actually nail you on anything because you hadn’t done anything actually illegal, only things they didn’t like, and they relied on public disgust against your “degenerate character” (yeah there’s a very big reason we keep saying not to use that word and it’s not to be killjoys) to make sure you knew your place.
Which means that in practice:
Went to a socialist meeting? Sodomy.
Male kindergarten teacher? Sodomy.
Mixing races? Sodomy.
Not Christian (or the right kind of Christian)? Sodomy.
Kink is only the beginning. They’ll come after the kinksters because they’re low-hanging fruit, and you’ll gleefully help them dig a hole, laughing all the way and never consider that it’s way too big for the number of bodies you need to bury.