Sodomy Laws by State 2025
State | Sodomy Laws Exist | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Alabama | No | |
 | Alaska | No | |
 | Arizona | No | |
 | Arkansas | No | |
 | California | No | |
 | Colorado | No | |
 | Connecticut | No | |
 | Delaware | No | |
 | District of Columbia | No | |
 | Florida | Yes | |
 | Georgia | Yes | |
 | Hawaii | No | |
 | Idaho | No | |
 | Illinois | No | |
 | Indiana | No | |
 | Iowa | No | |
 | Kansas | Yes | |
 | Kentucky | Yes | |
 | Louisiana | Yes | |
 | Maine | No | |
 | Maryland | Yes | The Maryland legislature voted on March 31, 2023 to repeal its sodomy law. If signed by the governor, it will go into effect October 1, 2023 |
 | Massachusetts | Yes | |
 | Michigan | Yes | |
 | Minnesota | Yes | |
 | Mississippi | Yes | |
 | Missouri | No | |
 | Montana | No | |
 | Nebraska | No | |
 | Nevada | No | |
 | New Hampshire | No | |
 | New Jersey | No | |
 | New Mexico | No | |
 | New York | No | |
 | North Carolina | Yes | |
 | North Dakota | No | |
 | Ohio | No | |
 | Oklahoma | Yes | |
 | Oregon | No | |
 | Pennsylvania | No | |
 | Rhode Island | No | |
 | South Carolina | Yes | |
 | South Dakota | No | |
 | Tennessee | No | |
 | Texas | Yes | A bill awaiting a vote in the Texas House of Representatives as of March 2023 decriminalizes homosexual conduct, but retains the language “homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public”. |
 | Utah | No | |
 | Vermont | No | |
 | Virginia | No | |
 | Washington | No | |
 | West Virginia | No | |
 | Wisconsin | No | |
 | Wyoming | No |
- List is accurate as of April 2023. However, sodomy laws are curently a frequent target for repeal or modification and may change at any time.
- The US Supreme Court’s 2003 decision Lawrence v. Texas invalidated sodomy laws nationwide. Therefore, the few sodomy laws that remain part of a given state’s legal code are unenforceable—although they could conceivably re-enter into effect if the Supreme Court were to reverse Lawrence v. Texas with a follow-up decision in the future.
Derived from a legal doctrine known as “church law,” sodomy ordinances were passed to stop non-procreative sexuality wherever it might be found and was particularly aimed at sexuality conducted outside the marital bounds. Indeed, for the bulk of the 19th and 20th-century, sodomy was typically used to buttress other more serious crimes like sexual assault, sex with animals, pedophilia, or indulging in sex in public. These laws focused on sex, and the overwhelming majority involved heterosexual sexual acts.
This began to change in the 1960s and 1970s when the laws took a decidedly anti-gay slant in their application. In 2023, there are still currently 14 states with sodomy laws on the books, but the 2003 Supreme Court case, Lawrence v. Texas, rendered many of these state laws moot as the court delivered a 6-3 ruling against
The Significance of Lawrence v. Texas
The bulk of sodomy laws across the states were structured in such a way as to target the LGBTQ community. While nominally directed against aberrant sexual habit regardless of whether the activity is homosexual or heterosexual, enforcement was concentrated on the former and ignored the latter. Three states, however, have written their legal code to specifically target only same-sex relationships. These include Kansas, Kentucky, and Texas.
When a 1998 arrest led a Texas man, John Lawrence, to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge under the state’s anti-sodomy laws, the path was set on an eventual rollback of sodomy laws across the country. The case would through the appellate system before the highest court in the land in 2003. Ruling that consensual, intimate sexual conduct is a protected liberty under the Constitution’s Due Process Clause. As such, the ruling not only vacated the conviction of John Lawrence but also invalidated similarly discriminatory laws across those jurisdictions.
Sodomy Laws by State
That being said, anti-sodomy legislation is still on the books in 14 states, but the Lawrence decision has effectively stripped away all provisions, save strictures against bestiality, in the laws of these states. These states are Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. Maryland legislature voted in March 2023 to repeal its sodomy law, and if signed by the governor it would be repealed as of October 1, 2023.
States that do not have an anti-bestiality law on the books will generally protect their animal population under a range of animal cruelty or public health statutes.
