The Sodomy Challenge
The Bisexual Resource
Center, October 9, 2001
The Bisexual Resource Center (BRC) is an international advocacy
organization based in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States which
believes that it is wrong to criminalize adult consensual sexual expression.
To raise public awareness about the existence of archaic sex laws (often
called "Sodomy Laws") and to raise funds to support our own advocacy
work, we have inaugurated a month-long civil disobedience fundraiser which we
call The Sodomy
Challenge.
In many jurisdictions around the world there are archaic sex laws on the
books which criminalize adult, consensual sexual activity. These laws have a
long history of uneven and unfair use by authorities against sexual minorities
such as Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay, and Transgender people along with those in the
leather and fetish communities, though they often criminalize a wide range of
sexual activity, both different-sex and same-sex.
For instance, the sodomy laws in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where
the BRC is headquartered, criminalize almost all sexual activity between
people of the same sex and nearly anything between opposite sex partners that
is not penile/vaginal intercourse. Violation of these statutes is a felony for
which one can be imprisoned for up to 20 years. Such laws have also been used
to argue against implementation of laws prohibiting discrimination based on
sexual orientation; to prohibit Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay, and Transgender people
from adopting children; and to label people who just might violate them presumptive
felons.
People are invited to sign a statement that they intend, as a protest, to
disobey sodomy laws a number of times during the month of October, 2001 and
ask others to pledge donations to the BRC to support this protest. All of the
relevant information about sodomy laws in jurisdictions around the world,
pledge and information forms, and links to safer sex information can be found
on our website at www.biresource.org.
Those who do not wish to take part in the Sodomy Challenge but who would
like to support this work are invited to make individual contributions through
the mail or at www.communityroom.net.
We invite everyone, whether you participate in this project or not, to engage
your elected representatives in conversation about these odious laws. We hope
to see the day when no one is subject to their threat any longer.
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