List of States Where Homosexuality Is Illegal

Four states are in violation of a 2003 Supreme Court decision declaring homosexuality legal.

According to a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court in 2003,

adults are "free to engage in private consensual sex without government oppression," including homosexual acts. However, four states continue to have laws in their legislation making homosexuality a criminal offense: Kansas, Oklahoma, Montana and Texas.

States With Sodomy Laws

In 1962, sodomy, or the practice of any deviant sexual act such as anal intercourse, was illegal in every state. Illinois was the first to repeal its sodomy law and by 2003, 35 more states had followed suit. However, fourteen states still had active sodomy laws in their legislation. Virginia, Alabama, Utah, Florida, South Carolina, Idaho, North Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kansas, Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma all refused to repeal these laws. They applied to "deviant behavior" between homosexual and heterosexual couples. In Idaho, the crime was punishable by up to a year in prison, and in Alabama and Louisiana, it also carried a $2,000 fine. Only in Texas was it not punishable by a jail term.

States Making Exceptions for Heterosexual Couples

Four other states -- Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri -- repealed their sodomy laws by mid-2003, but only as they applied to heterosexual couples. These states maintained that their sodomy laws still applied to homosexual couples.

Federal Law

In June of 2003, Texas's refusal to lift its sodomy law forced the United States Supreme Court to take a look at the constitutionality of these laws. In "Lawrence v. Texas," the Supreme Court ruled that "adults are free to engage in private consensual sex without government oppression."

Unrelenting States

As of 2011, Kansas, Oklahoma, Montana and Texas still have not repealed their laws against homosexual acts and sodomy. Eight years after the Supreme Court's 2003 decision, Texas has not removed its unconstitutional laws from its legislation, though they are now unenforceable; "deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex" is still a Class C misdemeanor. Kansas, Montana and Oklahoma also refuse to repeal their laws against homosexuality. In March 2011, a legislative committee in Montana blocked a bill that would have repealed the state's statutes against criminal conviction for homosexuality, and in February 2011, Kansas legislators refused to address the issue of their own laws because they said they were not being enforced anyway.

References

• ReligiousTolerance.org; U.S. Laws That Once Criminalized Same-Sex Behavior; B.A. Robinson; Dec. 13, 2002
• LGBTQ Nation; Texas, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma -- States Hold Onto Laws Defining Gay 'Conduct' Illegal; Darryl Morris; Mar. 27, 2011
• LGBTQ Nation; It's Still Illegal to Have Gay Sex in Montana Years After Supreme Court Ruling; Mar. 18, 2011
• The Free Dictionary; Sodomy; 2011