# How did they apply the sodomy law? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 14, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-apply-the-sodomy-law/673880 "2013-11-14T03:44:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-apply-the-sodomy-law/673880/41 "2013-11-15T17:38:53Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > Actually just showing a word existed at a certain date doesn’t mean it was in common use. But if you’d like to go down that path, please provide some evidence that British was in “common usage.” I just did; I quoted the OED’s statement that it was “frequently used” in that sense by the time of Henry VIII. In the same entry it goes on to say that the term was “in general use in this sense” by 1603. > [@](#): > > I know that many of the writings of the Founding Fathers, who wrote long after the Act of Union, still referred to English liberties, rights as Englishmen etc. Which is in direct contradiction to your claim… No it isn’t; anyone who is English is also British. One term is simply more general than the other. The authors you read either more closely identified with the specific nationality, or were referring to specifically English rights (Scotland being under a different legal system whose law didn’t apply to most colonies). If they did self-identify preferentially as English, that doesn’t mean that they rejected any narrower or wider identity. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-apply-the-sodomy-law/673880/42 "2013-11-15T17:53:01Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > In England and Wales, yes. In the US, the marital rape exception was revoked by various legislation in the states. Not sure about Canada. Quite, the case was [R v R [1992] 1 AC 599](http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/hamlyn/rvr.htm). In it the parties were separated. Even before this case, there were authorities that held a rape charge could be brought where a separation had been effected. Certainly most successful case of prosecution for spousal rape i have seem are those where the parties were separated. It is intereting that there was obiter dicta in Victorian (!) times that Hale was full of shit. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-apply-the-sodomy-law/673880/43 "2013-11-15T18:14:53Z")
I think there are a few things we can learn from an _a posteriori_ analysis of the situation. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-apply-the-sodomy-law/673880/44 "2013-11-15T20:01:05Z")
Some people got a bum deal, and that’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-apply-the-sodomy-law/673880/45 "2013-11-15T21:15:41Z")
“_a posteriory_” my ass! ---
**Author:** ![Artemis\_Tardis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@Artemis\_Tardis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Artemis_Tardis)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-apply-the-sodomy-law/673880/46 "2013-11-16T19:08:24Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > What? What? In the _butt_? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/fbGkxcY7YFU/hqdefault.jpg "Samwell - "What What (In the Butt)"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbGkxcY7YFU) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-apply-the-sodomy-law/673880.md?page=2)