# Is anal sex illegal?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 24, 2003, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145 "2003-06-24T21:47:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@WILLASS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILLASS)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/1 "2003-06-24T21:47:48Z")
I once heard that anal sex was illegal to perform on a woman due to the fact that it is dangerous. Is this true? Is there any reason why it would be any more damaging to a woman than a man and is it illegal anywhere?
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### Author:  [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/2 "2003-06-24T21:54:18Z")
Indiana repealed all its sodomy laws decades or so ago. Thus, it is not illegal here.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/3 "2003-06-24T21:55:28Z")
Someone else will be along shortly no doubt with an actual cite, but I thought that if a place or jurisdiction criminalized sodomy, it by definition criminalized anal sex, which is one form of sodomy.
Or am I wrong?
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/4 "2003-06-24T22:13:15Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by dantheman \*
> \*\*Someone else will be along shortly no doubt with an actual cite, but I thought that if a place or jurisdiction criminalized sodomy, it by definition criminalized anal sex, which is one form of sodomy.
>
> Or am I wrong? \*\*
No, that’s pretty much right. Sodomy is a generic term for oral or anal sex between humans, or between a human and an animal.
So there goes my weekend.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/5 "2003-06-24T22:18:39Z")
[Here](http://www.sodomylaws.org/) is a site that summarizes sodomy laws in the US. It is aptly named.
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### Author:  [@Susma\_Rio\_Sep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susma_Rio_Sep)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/6 "2003-06-24T22:53:48Z")
“…anal sex, which is one form of sodomy.”
That’s interesting, danth; I always thought that sodomy is anal sex. Tell me then what are the kinds of sodomy? Between two men, between a man and a woman, what else?
Susma Rio Sep
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by dantheman \*
> \*\*Someone else will be along shortly no doubt with an actual cite, but I thought that if a place or jurisdiction criminalized sodomy, it by definition criminalized anal sex, which is one form of sodomy.
>
> Or am I wrong? \*\*
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### Author:  [@mkl12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkl12)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/7 "2003-06-24T22:59:54Z")
Your location says London, so you’re probably interested in UK laws too. [This site](http://www.sodomylaws.org/world/united_kingdom/united_kingdom.htm) shows that sodomy in the UK is legal, as long as no more than two men participate.
So you don’t have to change your name to WONTASS ;).
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### Author:  [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/8 "2003-06-24T23:03:22Z")
Some states with sodomy laws also include oral sex in the definition. Therefore you can have oral and anal sodomy. The oral part mystifies me.
Oh, well. Can’t please everyone, I guess.
Bob
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### Author:  [@Agback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agback)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/9 "2003-06-24T23:10:09Z")
G’day Susma
My dictionary defines sodomy to include all homosexual sex, bestiality, and anal sex. So the answer to your question includes fellatio for gay men, cunnilingus for lesbians, mutual masturbation or other manual sex between gays couples of either sex, and all types of sex with animals.
Furthermore, various legislators have occasionally and in various places expanded the definition to include all oral sex, even between married couples, adultery, and even all sexual activity other than vaginal sex between a man and a woman who are married to one another. That’s right: in some US jurisdictions in times past a straight fuck between two consent adults, of opposite sexes and in private, could be punished under sodomy laws. And [some] mediaeval monasteries considered solitary masturbation to be a form of sodomy, and punished monks harshly when they caught them at it.
Regards,
Agback
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/10 "2003-06-24T23:26:02Z")
We here in the United States are expecting a ruling to be issued this week on the constitutionality of the “sodomy” law of Texas. So the answer to your question may change within the next 48 hours.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/11 "2003-06-24T23:32:27Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Susma Rio Sep \*
> \*\*"…anal sex, which is one form of sodomy."
>
> That’s interesting, danth; I always thought that sodomy is anal sex. Tell me then what are the kinds of sodomy? Between two men, between a man and a woman, what else?
>
> Susma Rio Sep \*\*
Oral sex is considered sodomy in some areas, if not all. Here’s an old article about Rhode Island:
[www.sodomylaws.org/usa/rhode\_island/rinews08.htm](http://www.sodomylaws.org/usa/rhode_island/rinews08.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> Like 20 other states, Rhode Island still has a law against sodomy – defined as oral or anal sex, and described in the 102-year-old law as “abominable and detestable crimes against nature.” Violators face a maximum prison term of 20 years
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### Author:  [@WILLASS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILLASS)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2003, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/12 "2003-06-24T23:38:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by mkl12 [/i
>
> So you don’t have to change your name to WONTASS ;). \*\*
no, but I might change it to ‘WANTASS’! What I really wanted to know though is whether there is any medical reason why anal sex is/was illegal when performed on a woman i.e whether it damages her reproductive organs or something. Any ideas? I’m at work and worried about sticking ‘anal sex’ in google…
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/13 "2003-06-25T00:01:43Z")
Anal sex is riskier medically than vaginal sex for a woman, as it tends to cause more trauma to the area, resulting in more bleeding, fissures in the rectal mucosa, and a greater chance of damaging the rectal sphincter. That doesn’t make it inherently wrong, only more dangerous.
Frankly, that particular orifice was truly designed as a one-way highway. But it can accomodate two-lane traffic (altho not at the same time, please!) if motorists practice caution.
Anyone who engages in anal sex regularly should avail themselves of one of the many fine guidebooks or brochures on how to keep one’s anus healthy.
QtM, MD
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### Author:  [@WILLASS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILLASS)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/14 "2003-06-25T00:15:10Z")
Why does it cause more trauma to a woman than a man though? I cant really see how the anus of a woman can be weaker than a mans, I would have thought that it would be from bumping into internal organs or something, is there any reason why woman have weak asses?
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/15 "2003-06-25T00:30:27Z")
My sense of **Qadgop’s** post isn’t that anal sex is more dangerous for a woman than for a man. In other words, the same dangers apply equally to both.
What **Qadgop** said was that VAGINAL sex was safer for a woman because, quite simply, that orifice was _intended_ for sex (not to mention birthin’ babies)
Now, a woman who has given birth _might_ be more likely to have things like hemmerhoids, which I would imagine could complicate anal sex. On the other hand, lots of men acquire hemmerhoids as they age as well.
As for “bumping into internal organs”… men have innards, too. And since a pregnant woman spends a couple months with a baby kicking and punching her _from the inside_ I would expect her internal organs could stand up to a penis up the anus.
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### Author:  [@WILLASS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILLASS)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/16 "2003-06-25T00:49:54Z")
yeah sorry, didn’t read it properley…doh!:smack:
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/17 "2003-06-25T01:31:28Z")
But _ **where** _ did you read this?
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/18 "2003-06-25T09:52:40Z")
Can’t cite, because I’m at work and my gigantic copy of “criminal law and its applications” is at home… however “sodomy” is the blanket term used to cover the common law “crimes against nature”- fellatio, cunnilingus, buggery (which in the US is the closest thing to a legal term specifically applied to anal sex, both hetero- and homosexual), and bestiality.
Every US state now has specific statutes regarding bestiality; the other three are illegal or protected depending on the state and proximity to the Bible Belt.
Here in Florida, for example, consensual oral or anal sex between adults, whether gay or straight, is still illegal- and there have been prosecutions as recently as 1981.
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/19 "2003-06-25T15:32:20Z")
Down here, or “sodomy” statute extends to same-sex acts, bestiality, and all instance of “the crime against nature”. “TCAN” being defined by precedent, use and custom as anything other than the ol’ procreative act, then yes, anal/oral sex are illegal.
In hopeful news, our Senate just approved a revision of the penal code that strikes down these in case of consenting-adult players. Alas, that is only one among something like 300 amendments that may otherwise end up killing the bill.
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### Author:  [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anal-sex-illegal/184145/20 "2003-06-25T17:58:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by JRDelirious \*
> \*\* our Senate just approved a revision of the penal code that strikes down these in case of consenting-adult players. \*\*
Bad pun.
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by dutchboy208 \*
> \*\*there have been prosecutions as recently as 1981. \*\*
Does anyone know the circumstances of that case? And have there been others since?
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