2.From the earliest times in the United States, sodomy (variously defined) was prohibited,
although some historians suggest that early sodomy laws were mainly used to address
issues of non-consensual behavior, or public behavior. The earliest known United States
law journal article dealing with sodomy was in 1905 in West Virginia. Attorney E.D. Leach
argued that "perverted sexual natures" were related to crime. "Sodomy, rape, lust-murder, bodily injury, theft, robbery, torture of animals, injury to property and many other crimes may be committed under these conditions." 18th and 19th century judges often editorialized about the act of sodomy as they handed down their rulings. "That most detestable sin", the "horrid act", "the horrible crime", "that which is unfit to be named among Christians" characterized some of the colorful language used by British and American jurists when punishing sodomites. Indeed, emphasis is usually on the notion that the act of anal penetration is so abominable and offensive "to God almighty" that the term Sodomy (literally, that which occurred in Sodom) is the only appropriate way of designating the activity. In other words, it was understood that when reference was made to "an unspeakable act" having occurred, it was clear that the act in question was none other than anal penetration. Some say, however, that the "Sin of Sodom" accurately referred not to anal penetration but rather to the agglomeration of ALL the
unholy activities said to have occurred in Sodom and that it is thus inaccurate to imply
a one-to-one relationship.

In the 1950s, all states had some form of law criminalizing sodomy, and in 1986 the
United States Supreme Court ruled that nothing in the United States Constitution bars a
state from prohibiting sodomy. However, state legislators and state courts had started
to repeal or overturn their sodomy laws, beginning with Illinois in 1961, and thus in
2003, only 10 states had laws prohibiting all sodomy, with penalties ranging from 1 to
15 years imprisonment. Additionally, four other states had laws that specifically
prohibited same-sex sodomy. That year the United States Supreme Court reversed its 1986
Bowers v. Hardwick ruling and in Lawrence v. Texas, invalidated these laws as being an
unconstitutional violation of privacy, with Sandra Day O'Connor's concurring opinion
arguing that they violated equal protection. See Sodomy law.

However, Lawrence v. Texas has not changed the Uniform Code of Military Justice Article
125 that bans all servicemen and women from engaging in “sodomy”. The United States
Armed Forces Code defines the offense thus: