Sodomy Still Outlawed in 14 States

Fourteen states still have laws on the books that criminalize anal sex between two consenting adults, including Utah, North Carolina, Montana, and Texas.

Despite the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, which struck down such "sodomy" or "deviate sexual conduct" laws, several states did not remove the laws from their codes. Meanwhile, lawmakers such as Kristin Hansen in Montana have attempted to protect the laws even though they cannot be constitutionally enforced.

According to Mother Jones, 10 states — Idaho, Utah, Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana — ban all forms of sodomy. Four states — Montana, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas — ban sodomy only between two people of the same sex.