sodomy laws in general prohibited at one point all nonmarital or procreating sexual acts. he goes back hundreds and hundreds of years in the west end goes back to england and the colonies and every state. in fact, every state had some version of a sodomy law as of 1960. in a sense, as the supreme court said in bowers versus hardwick, these were sort of ancient laws, as you could call them. in bowers versus hardwick, they do not have a very deep or sophisticated understanding of these laws. they were not laws that were targeted on the face. they targeted both heterosexual and homosexual non-pro creators and sexual acts like oral sex. in every state as well, until the late 60s and 70s, that is precisely the way they were written. >> in the mid- 1950s, some very influential legal authority scholars in both the united states and england, suggest that a number of archaic sex was be removed. sodomy laws were among those period that began the process by which the states began repealing their state's sodomy laws. that process proceeded through legislature and state courts for a pe

sodomy laws in general laws that prohibited all nonmarital, nonprocreative sexual acts, go back hundreds and hundreds of years in the last -- go back to england and the colonies and every state had some version of a sodomy law as of 1960. so, in a sense, as the supreme court said in bowers vs. hardwick, these were laws of ancient origin, i suppose you could call it. but the supreme court in 1986 did not have a very deep or sophisticated understanding of the history of these laws. they were not laws that were targeted on their face only at gay sex. they targeted both heterosexual and homosexual nonprocreative sexual act, like oral sex, and in every state until the late 1960s and early 1970s that's the way they were written. in the mid-1950s, very influential legal authorities suggested a number of archaic sex laws be removed, and sodomy laws were among those. that began a process by which the states been repealing their own state sodomy laws, and that process proceeded through legislatures and state courts for a period of four decades. more than four decades. at the same time, some states