Last edited: February 14, 2005


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.


[Home] [News] [USA]

 
1