Md. sodomy law used in bookstore arrests of gay men still on books

[mahatmakanejeeves]

LOCAL

Md. sodomy law used in bookstore arrests of gay men still on books

Only one of two separate sodomy laws repealed in 2020

Published 5 days ago on July 28, 2021
By Lou Chibbaro Jr.

In a little-noticed development, the Maryland General Assembly agreed to requests by Republican lawmakers to delete one of the state’s two separate sodomy laws from a sodomy law repeal bill that it approved in March of 2020, leading most LGBTQ activists into incorrectly believing the full sodomy law had been repealed.

According to Maryland House of Delegates member David Moon (D-Montgomery County), who introduced the repeal bill in the state House, which approved the bill on Feb. 20, 2020, the Democratic-controlled Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee voted unanimously to pass an amendment that deleted from the bill a provision calling for the repeal of Maryland’s Criminal Code Section 3-322, which is known as the Unnatural or Perverted Sexual Practice Act.

The act criminalizes oral sex in all possible circumstances, including between consenting adults.

{snip}

[Effete Snob]

1. That's a difficult headline

The author of that headline might have paused to rethink it before going to print. I gather the statute is still on the books, not that the men are still on the books in the bookstore, or ever were on the books for that matter.

In any event, this is the statute in question:

https://codes.findlaw.com/md/criminal-law/md-code-crim-law-sect-3-322.html

[Passenger]

2. There are all manner of laws still on the books that are no longer operative due to court decisions.

It would be an excellent gesture to remove it, but it really doesn't rate the screaming headline treatment.