Thread by @JinkiesJerrica

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i’ve gotten quite a few replies to this threads from Gen Z queers asking “how could they enforce gay sex being illegal?”

so let’s talk about it, and go over a little of the history of sodomy laws in the United States and how they were used to target the LGBT+ community

https://twitter.com/jinkiesjerrica/status/1629921865144877056

sodomy laws in America date back to the 17th century, and were derived from christian law which deemed non-procreative sex (oral and anal) regardless of gender or sexuality, as a “crime against god/nature”

the laws were mostly applied as secondary charges for other sex crimes

many states revised their sodomy laws in the 1970s to target gay people in response to the burgeoning gay liberation movement of the 1960s (e.g., Stonewall)

in conjunction with other anti-gay laws, the goal of revised sodomy laws was to ban gay people from public life

so now that we’ve established the basic history and purpose of sodomy laws in the United States, we can get to the big question

“how did governments enforce gay sex being illegal?”

the short answer is they left it up to ordinary citizens

the long answer? let’s dive in

in addition to gay sex bring a criminal act in many states, public displays of homosexuality were also illegal

for instance, in 1940s New York, it was a crime to employ cabaret performers that were gay or “pretended to be,” meaning queer-themed entertainment was a crime

in addition to 1940s bans on gay cabaret (sound familiar? modern anti-drag bills are recycled bigotry), any public display of homosexuality (kissing, hand holding, dates etc.) was considered public degeneracy, and was punishable with jail, forced castration, conversion therapy

because of the steep consequences for being outed as gay, gay people of the time took to hiding, meeting in secret be it for dates or social gatherings (e.g., gay bars, balls, drag shows)

so where does gay sex factor into the hiding? gay people of the era often avoided having sex at home because that meant risking being seen with your sex partner by neighbors

many gay people would have sex in public bathrooms, bars, or parks late at night, to avoid attention

this behavior eventually came to be known in the community as cruising, a protective slang term that allowed the intended audience (mostly gay men and trans women) to understand intent without raising the attention of straight people

while avoiding having gay sex at home was meant to be a protective action, public sex came with great risk too

many gay men and trans women were caught by late night strollers, police on patrol, or seen by passers by, and that led to prosecution for sodomy

once police became aware of cruising culture, they relied on informants and citizen reports to target gay people

the targeting came in the form of raids on known gay bars (e.g., Stonewall), undercover cops pretending to be gay to entrap gay men, and even raids on homes

“well why would they raid homes? how did they know someone was gay?”

are you a gay man who is constantly seen with other men, but never with women?

you’re getting reported by your neighbors for suspicion

you get seen leaving a known gay bar? cops could follow you home

understand that mere suspicion of being gay was enough to get you harassed and/or prosecuted then

Jim Gaylord, a history teacher from Tacoma, Washington was fired in 1972 because a student told the vice principal that Gaylord was gay

the Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that Jim Gaylord’s firing was constitutionally permitted because “homosexuality was considered an ‘immorality’ that was a ‘sufficient cause for discharge’”

that was the long ago in the 1970s”

prior to the 2003 SCOTUS ruling of Lawerence v Texas, 16 states still had sodomy laws on the books (and still do) which were being enforced well into the 1990s such as the 1982 case of Michael Hardwick, and 1993 case of Randall Menges

July of 1982, Michael Hardwick, an employee at an Atlanta gay bar, was cited for public drinking when a cop saw Hardwick toss a beer bottle in the bar’s trash can

Hardwick paid the fine, but was issued a summons, which the citing officer took to Hardwick’s home 3 weeks later

when the officer arrived at Hardwick’s home, the front door was open, so the officer entered unannounced, and caught Hardwick having oral sex with another man

the officer cited both men for sodomy, which was a felony in Georgia punishable by up to 20 years in prison

the DA eventually declined to prosecute on the grounds that the summons was invalid, but Hardwick sued, which led to a SCOTUS case, Bowers v Hardwick

the court ruled 5-4 in favor of Georgia’s sodomy law, upholding it as constitutional

Randall Menges wasn’t as lucky as Hardwick

on a Idaho ranch in 1993, a then teenage Randall Menges was caught having consensual sex with two other teen boys, and was prosecuted for violating Idaho’s “crimes against nature” sodomy law

Mendes was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and enrolled on the sex offender registry

Randall Menges served 7 of his 15 year prison sentence

Menges remained on the sex offender registry until 2021, when a Montana federal court ruled he no longer had to be on the registry because the Lawerence v Texas ruling overturned his “crime” of having gay sex

Lawerence v Texas is well known as the 2003 SCOTUS ruling that legalized gay sex at the federal level

what’s not often discussed outside of history discourse is how that case made it all the way to the Supreme Court in the first place

on September 17th of 1998, John Geddes Lawrence Jr, a gay man, was hosting a small get together with two friends, also gay: Tyron Garner and Robert Eubanks

Eubanks and Lawerence were friends going on 20 years, while Garner and Eubanks were on-again off-again partners since 1990

John Lawerence, knowing the rocky nature of Tyron and Robert’s relationship, flirted with Tyron throughout the night, which angered Robert

in an act of jealousy (and racism), Robert called the police and told them a “crazed Black man with a gun” was at Lawerence’s apartment

the first first officer on-scene claimed he saw Lawerence and Garner having anal sex. a second officer claimed he saw them having oral sex

two other officers reported seeing nothing

Lawrence and Garner were still charged with violating Texas’ “Homosexual Conduct” law

the officers charged John Lawerence and Tyron Garner with “deviant sex,” specifically “anal sex with another man”

Lawrence and Garner both plead not guilty during arraignment, but at their November hearing, at the uriging of @LambdaLegal, both plead no contest

a Justice of the Peace found Lawrence and Garner guilty, fining them $125 each

Lawrence and Garner’s defense pursued an appeal: four times

the first court dismissed, the second ruled the law unconstitutional

the third reversed the second ruling, and the fourth declined review

finally, Lawerence and Garner’s case was brought before SCOTUS in July of 2002, with a ruling in June of 2003

SCOTUS overturned Bowers v Hardwick, stating that consensual gay sex was a privacy issue, and therefore constitutionally protected

so there you have it

a brief history of gay sex being illegal in the United States, and how it was enforced over the decades

given the state of gay and trans rights in 2023, i understand why younger queers think things are as bad as ever for the LGBT+ community

but please know that when Millennial and Gen X queers remark on things being better than they used to be, that it isn’t an embellishment

it isn’t the trope of old people talking down to younger people about “how easy you kids have it!”

in 2023, gay and trans rights are still under attack from bigoted politicians and their supporters

homophobia and transphobia are still a daily threat to gay and trans people

despite that, things are better now than they were in the days when gay sex was punishable with prison