Oral Sex, Sodomy Laws and Immoral Prosecutions by Tina Dupuy In 1988, James Moseley went through a bitter divorce in his home state of Georgia. His estranged wife, Bette Roberts, had accused him of rape in an attempt to secure custody of their two children. At the trial, the jury found the wife’s claim not to be credible and her ex-husband was acquitted. However, when Moseley took the witness stand, as part of his testimony he admitted to performing consensual oral sex on his then wife. In Georgia, sodomy (legally including oral sex among married heterosexual couples) was against the law. The maximum sentence for the “crime” in that state was 20 years in prison. Moseley was given five. He ended up serving 18-months. Yes, in the land of the free, as a private citizen, going down on your wife was criminalized. And yes, penalized. Not exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they rebelled against tyranny. Moseley wrote a letter to Playboy in 1990: “My life has been virtually destroyed. I have lost everything, including my family. I am now a convicted felon, convicted of a sex crime. As a result, I will not be allowed to visit or have custody of my children. I cannot even be paroled to a Georgia halfway house, since Georgia will not accept convicted sex offenders in its halfway houses. The state will accept convicted murderers in the same halfway houses.” 36 KUSH L.A.
It’s a story so stupid it sounds like an urban legend. It has an air of like that of the “Vanishing Hitchhiker” because the logic is missing. Why put people in jail for doing something harmless in private? It’s legislating morality and in Moseley’s case and the many others identical to his – preference. The whole idea of living in a country touted as “free” is to enjoy freedoms. One being what you do privately is your own business and not subjected to the scrutiny of the government. For sodomy and its proponents this all changed with the decisision by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 26, 2003 in the case of Lawrence & Garner v. State of Texas. The Court ruled 6-3 that sodomy laws are unconstitutional. Reagan appointee, Justice Antonin Scalia in his dissent wrote, “Many Americans do not want persons who openly engage in homosexual conduct as partners in their business, as scoutmasters for their children, as teachers in their children’s schools, or as boarders in their home. They view this as protecting themselves and their families from a lifestyle that they believe to be immoral and destructive.” Don’t feel bad for Scalia and his short view of what many consider to be a good time. Feel bad for his wife. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor voted with the majority and wrote, “A law branding one class of persons as criminal solely