Massachusetts
- Statute: 272-34, Crime Against Nature (Found
unconstitutional by Doe v. Reilly)
- Penalty: 20 years
- Classification: Felony
- Restrictions: Applies only to anal intercourse.
- Statute: 272-35, Unnatural and Lascivious Acts (Found
unconstitutional by Doe v. Reilly)
- Penalty: 5 years/$100-$1000
- Classification: Felony
- Restrictions: Applies only to oral sex.
Unnatural and Lascivious Acts has been held not apply to private consensual adult
behavior. Commonwealth v. Balthazar, Supreme Judicial Court 1974. The ruling may
also apply to the Crime Against Nature. Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders asked
the Supreme Judicial Court to strike down the Crime Against Nature law. The
case, Doe v. Reilly, reaffirmed Balthazar on February 21, 2002.
From George Painter: The '74 and '77 court cases wiped out both the CAN and ULA laws, since the
court's opinions explicitly overruled the 1954 Jaquith case and decided that,
notwithstanding the case being brought under the ULA law, private consensual activity was constitutionally protected in the state.
History
1648 Elizabeth
Johnson is the first woman known to be prosecuted for sexual relations with
another woman, in Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1697 The
new Massachusetts sodomy law refers to sodomy as being “against the very
light of nature,” the first statutory reference to nature in a sodomy law.
1821 The
Massachusetts Supreme Court decides the nation’s first obscenity case that
includes same-sex eroticism.
1921 The
Massachusetts Supreme Court issues the first reported decision in the nation
concerning sexual relations in a bath house.
1954 The
Massachusetts Supreme Court upholds the state’s sodomy law in the first case
in the nation to issue a broad challenge to it.
Statute
GENERAL LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS
Chapter 272: Section 34. Crime against nature.
Section 34. Whoever commits the abominable and detestable crime against nature, either
with mankind or with a beast, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for
not more than twenty years.
GLAD’s lawsuit, Doe v. Reilly, asks the highest court of
Massachusetts to strike these laws in their entirety and rid New England of
its last sodomy laws. The case was found by the Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court to lack merit as the law cannot be applied to private
consensual acts. It was sent back to lower courts for dismissal.
Repeal Bills
Repeal of Archaic Sex Laws (House bills 2940, 2939
and 2943)
The
Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian
Political Caucus and the LGBT Political Alliance of Western Massachusetts have been working with a broad coalition of lesbian and gay
organizations over the past year for passage of a bill repealing archaic laws. Included in
the group working for repeal of these laws are the Equal Rights League, the Gay and
Lesbian Bar Association, the Gay and Lesbian Defenders, the Attorney General's office, and
the Fenway Victims Recovery Program.
The Criminal Justice Committee voted to send the bill to a "study committee,"
effectively killing it for this year.
The working group is continuing to meet and to strategize ways of bringing the bill out
of committee this year (not very likely) and planning for next year.
Check out the current status of the bill from the State's web site.
Repeal Strategies
The most fun you'll ever have in a pledge drive! The Bisexual
Resource Center presents the Sodomy
Challenge. Try this at home!
News
- Bill
Softens Bestiality Statute [Nutty take on a good bill. -Bob] - WorldNetDaily
(extreme right wing), November 16, 2005
- Dark Moment for Gays Revisited in Documentary
- The Republican,
January 22, 2005
- Marriage Legislation Dominates Massachusetts
Legislative Calendar - December 2, 2004
- Drag Lad Tells All - Boston
Phoenix, March 6-13, 2003
- Committee Gives Approval to Bill Abolishing
Archaic Sex Laws - March 5, 2002
- Court: Sodomy Laws do Not Cover Private Acts
- February
22, 2002
- SJC Limits Prosecution for Sodomy - February
22, 2002
- State’s Highest Court Refuses to Throw Out
Anti-Sodomy Laws - February 21, 2002
- Massachusetts Court Finds Sodomy Laws
Inapplicable to Private, Consensual Conduct - February 21, 2002
- Massachusetts Sodomy Law Challenged -
December 17, 2001
- Gay Rights Group Challenges State’s Anti-Sodomy
Laws - December 17, 2001
- Governor: It’s Not OK to Have Public Sex in
Massachusetts - March 2, 2001
- New Rules Alter Line Drawn on Public Sex -
March 2, 2001
- Suit Filed Over Massachusetts Sodomy Law - July 18, 2000
- Suit Filed Against Massachusetts Sodomy Law - July 17,
2000
- Massachusetts SJC Is Asked to Overturn Sodomy Laws - July 14,
2000
- Judge: Police Can't Order Gay Man To Leave Rest Area -
October 29, 1999
- State Employee Sues For Access To Rest Areas - September 2,
1999
- Judge Delays Decision on Suit Over Rest Area Ban - September
2, 1999
- Gay State Employee Sues State Police For Pestering
Him At Local Rest Stops - September 1, 1999
Editorials
Advocates
