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By Sophie Clark
Live News Reporter
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In 2003, the Supreme Court passed Lawrence v. Texas, which banned the prosecution of sodomy—any sexual act that could not result in children—across the country.
However, despite this judgment, 12 states in the U.S. still have "zombie" anti-sodomy laws on their books. This means that if Lawrence v. Texas were to be overturned, it would be illegal for gay people to have intimate relations in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.
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While heterosexual people can also engage in sodomy, prior to being overruled by the Supreme Court, anti-sodomy laws were largely used to prosecute gay people for their private lives.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been clear that he wants the court to "reconsider" Lawrence v. Texas as it is based on the same precedent of fundamental privacy as Roe v. Wade, which was overturned in 2022.
Thomas has also said he wants the court to "reconsider" Obergefell v. Hodges, which codified gay marriage, and Griswold v. Connecticut, which granted the national right to contraception.
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Texas State Representative Venton Jones and Michigan State Representative Noah Arbit spoke with Newsweek about their efforts to repeal anti-sodomy laws from their states' criminal codes before it is too late.
Rep. Arbit pulled no punches when it came to why he believes lawmakers want to repeal Lawrence.
He told Newsweek: "Unfortunately, there is a growing Christian nationalist movement in this country that is really intolerant and does not respect the principle of pluralism … unfortunately, what that means is that anyone who does not subscribe to that ideology, their rights are not as important."
Rep. Arbit explained to Newsweek that he did not run for office based on Michigan's sodomy laws, but as a gay man, he felt he should fight to get this law off the books. His law was intended to rewrite the current penal law in Michigan so that only bestiality—and not sodomy—remains a sexually deviant act resulting in prison time.
The lawmaker said he pushed to overturn Michigan's sodomy laws when the Democrats controlled the House but, despite gaining bipartisan support, his bill failed because a number of Representatives refused to show up to several votes, forcing the House to adjourn.
He said he does not have hope that his bill will pass this current Republican-led House, adding: "I think that … the Republican Party should really take a look and see what it can do to actually better the lives of the people in this country. But I don't think that that's what they're interested in because they've been only captured by this [anti-gay] movement."
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Rep. Jones expressed more hope that his efforts to remove 'Homosexual Conduct' from the Texas criminal code will be successful.
He told Newsweek: "The amount of violence that we've seen in, you know, among LGBTQ people, particularly our trans brothers and sisters, that violence can equal death. And so it's so important that we take hate language and hate speech seriously … if there's any time to be able to address that, now is the moment that we can be able to take this language out of our penal code."
Rep. Jones' law is directed at the Texas penal code, which currently states: "A person commits an offense if he engages in deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex."
This language is repeated in the Texas Health and Safety Code, which states that students should learn that "homosexual conduct is a criminal offense under Section 21.06, Penal Code."
The Texas Health and Safety Code also states that teachers should emphasize to students "that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public."
Rep. Jones tried to have this language removed as well. However, he was only able to gain support for his bill if he narrowed in on the penal code.
He said that being able to share his reality as a gay man with his colleagues helped him to gain support for this bill, saying he was able to help his colleagues see that these laws do not just impact him as a lawmaker; they impact him as a Texan.
Rep. Jones said that his bill did not pass during the last session because the House ran out of time to vote on a number of bills. However, he is hopeful that in this session he will be successful in getting homosexuality off the penal code in Texas.
"It's not just something that, you know, we need to ignore because not only are our LGBTQ people being harassed, they are still being killed in our state right now and we have to make sure that we have every protection in place to protect our most vulnerable in our state and in our nation," stressed Rep. Jones.
"And so I think it's so important because a lot of people do not know that there are still bills like this on the books that, you know, could lead to individuals being harmed or killed."
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Rep. Arbit shared that, although his anti-sodomy repeal did not pass, he is proud of his work getting homophobia to be covered by Michigan's hate crime laws.
"There's not much I can control," said Arbit. "But I think being a vocal advocate, and calling out these trends, and making sure that people are aware of them, and what the Republicans end up trying to do in terms of rescinding rights from people, does not go without protest."
He added: "What kind of an America do we want to be?"
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