Surprising How Recent These Laws Are

Surprising How Recent These Laws Are

I had an inquiry from a political science professor about Colonial sodomy laws, and while digging through the Maryland records, I was startled to see how recent some of these laws are. These aren't all antiques left over from long ago. At Archives of Maryland 734:1530, you can see the session laws of 1976--which means that the Maryland legislature actually passed this law at that session:

[Sodomy]

553.

[Every person convicted of the crime of sodomy shall
be sentenced to the penitentiary for not less than one
year nor more than ten years.]

554.

[Every person who shall be convicted of taking into
his or her mouth the sexual organ of any other person or
animal, or who shall be convicted of placing his or her
sexual organ in the mouth of any other person or animal,
or who shall be convicted of committing any other
unnatural or perverted sexual practice with any other
person or animal, shall be fined not more than one
thousand dollars ($1,000.00), or be imprisoned in jail or
in the house of correction or in the penitentiary for a
period not exceeding ten years, or shall be both fined
and imprisoned within the limits above prescribed in the
discretion of the court.

Now, it is true that they were revising other parts of the criminal code with this session law--but no one seemed particularly concerned or troubled that they were again passing a law that criminalized homosexuality (and the actions, even then, of at least a sizable fraction of heterosexuals). It's amazing how fast our culture has changed in forty years.