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Is Oral Sex Illegal?
Q from a Female, Sophmore student at UT: I
have heard that having oral sex is illegal. Is that
true? I hope people don't actually get arrested for
it!
Dr. Caron's Answer: Many of our laws
dealing with sexual behavior were written 50, 100,
or more years ago when society's values and
attitudes toward sex and marriage were quite
different from what we find acceptable today. Yet
many of these laws remain on the books and are
sometimes applied by special interest groups in
discriminartory ways. About half the states in the
U.S. have statutes prohibiting intercourse between
unmarried persons, extramarital affairs,
oral-genital sex, and anal intercourse. These are
called sodomy laws, the term sodomy being applied
rather freely to many forms of sex other than
penis-in-vagina intercourse. As recently as 1986
the US Supreme Court upheld a Georgia antisodomy
law in the case of Bowers v. Hardwick, citing
condemnations of oral and anal sex dating back in
English common law to the days of King Henry IV. In
Georgia, oral and anal sex is a criminal offense
"regardless of whether the parties who engage in it
are married or unmarried, or of the same or
different sexes." Yet in 26 states oral and anal
sex is no longer a crime when engaged in by
consenting adults. (Editors note: The Georgia
case was used against a gay couple and to our
knowledge has never been used against straight
couples, whether married or not.)
© 2008, Sandra L.
Caron
* * *
It is not sex that gives the pleasure, but the
lover. - Marge Piercy
American teens have the worst of all
worlds...Our children are bombarded and confronted
with sexual messages, sexual exploitation, and all
manner of sexual criticism. But our society is by
and large sexually illiterate. Faye Westheimer
Dr. Sandra L.
Caron is a professor of human sexuality at the
University of Maine. To submit a question to Dr.
Caron or chat with your peers visit
www.CollegeSexTalk.com
Got a question for Dr. Caron? Visit
www.collegesextalk.com/questions.htm
and ask away! Get a guaranteed personal and
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