# Question about how sodomy charges were handled in the 50s...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 15, 2008, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976 "2008-06-15T02:29:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2008, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/1 "2008-06-15T02:29:31Z")
I stumbled across [this 1950s “educational” film](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4enfUyGWSY) entitled “Boys Beware”, about “the homosexual”, and while it simultaneously amused and horrified me, I wondered one thing.
After telling the story of “Jimmy”, who was groomed for molestation by “the homosexual”, they say that Jimmy was released to his parents on probation. Why? Was the victim of child molestation charged with sodomy in those days, as well? Were they afraid that he had been “contaminated” by his abuser and would become “a homosexual” himself because of it?
If nothing else, this film makes me glad I wasn’t alive in those days.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2008, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/2 "2008-06-15T03:45:20Z")
You must have missed the comment that homosexuality is “contagious.”
Yes, it was that bad. It wouldn’t have been unusual for the man to be beaten up by the cops, then his name and address to be printed in the paper, costing him his job and marriage, and often leading to suicide.
And it didn’t end with the '50s.
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### Author:  [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2008, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/3 "2008-06-15T04:05:32Z")
OMFG, that is the worst bit of hatred propaganda that I have ever seen. I can’t believe that even in the Leave it to Beaver generation that homosexual equaled homicidal pedophile. Fuck, wrong thread to do RO on this.
SSG Schwartz
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### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2008, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/4 "2008-06-15T04:21:06Z")
[QUOTE=panache45]
You must have missed the comment that homosexuality is “contagious.”
[/QUOTE]
I wonder though, if it was, given the day. Granted, if you’re a homo, you’re a homo, but social pressure probably would have prevented you from living as one. If you had an experience, and liked it, well, then, you avoid the social pressure not to be gay, and then now you’re a full-fledged homo. Don’t forget it’s only been a relatively few years since gayness has been “socially acceptable,” and in many respects, it’s still not “accepted” but only “tolerated.”
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### Author:  [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2008, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/5 "2008-06-15T04:41:44Z")
How come nothing bad ever happened to Truman Capote? I mean, it’s been a while since I read his biography, but he was about as open as you could get back then, and I don’t recall reading anything about him being beaten, harrassed, or otherwise discriminated against. His career certainly never suffered because of it. Quite the opposite; his flamboyant personality made him a pop culture icon.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2008, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/6 "2008-06-15T05:35:22Z")
[QUOTE=Balthisar]
I wonder though, if it was, given the day. Granted, if you’re a homo, you’re a homo, but social pressure probably would have prevented you from living as one. If you had an experience, and liked it, well, then, you avoid the social pressure not to be gay, and then now you’re a full-fledged homo. Don’t forget it’s only been a relatively few years since gayness has been “socially acceptable,” and in many respects, it’s still not “accepted” but only “tolerated.”
[/QUOTE]
Back then, most gay men and lesbians succumbed to the pressure to live a straight lifestyle, but that didn’t stop them from having sex on the side. And even today, there are still plenty of ostensibly-straight people who have gay sex.
And if you “had an experience and liked it,” then you’ve been gay all along.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2008, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/7 "2008-06-15T05:37:19Z")
[QUOTE=neutron star]
How come nothing bad ever happened to Truman Capote? I mean, it’s been a while since I read his biography, but he was about as open as you could get back then, and I don’t recall reading anything about him being beaten, harrassed, or otherwise discriminated against. His career certainly never suffered because of it. Quite the opposite; his flamboyant personality made him a pop culture icon.
[/QUOTE]
It just means he never got caught doing anything in public or with minors.
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### Author:  [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2008, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/8 "2008-06-15T06:28:00Z")
:eek: Wow!
I can’t believe that MST3K didn’t do a bit on that. Or did they?😕
Can’t beat some of that background music!
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### Author:  [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2008, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/9 "2008-06-15T10:20:46Z")
Although the film may seem ridiculous to a modern audience, there are gay men who go cruising for teenage boys. I’ve run into more than a few, including at public restrooms. You also don’t know what sort of people you’ll run into while hitch-hiking. Most are normal people, but there are a lot of perverts and sickos out there.
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2008, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/10 "2008-06-15T14:17:59Z")
[QUOTE=mks57]
Although the film may seem ridiculous to a modern audience, there are gay men who go cruising for teenage boys. I’ve run into more than a few, including at public restrooms. You also don’t know what sort of people you’ll run into while hitch-hiking. Most are normal people, but there are a lot of perverts and sickos out there.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, there are. And they’re called “child molesters”, not “the homosexual”.
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### Author:  [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/11 "2008-06-15T15:17:19Z")
[QUOTE=panache45]
Back then, most gay men and lesbians succumbed to the pressure to live a straight lifestyle, but that didn’t stop them from having sex on the side. And even today, there are still plenty of ostensibly-straight people who have gay sex.
And if you “had an experience and liked it,” then you’ve been gay all along.
[/QUOTE]
I’m not **Balthisar** (duh), but I think what he meant is that maybe there were a number of gays in that era who never admitted to themselves (or anyone else) that they were gay. But then they had a gay experience, and an epiphany as a result of that experience, therefore enhancing the stereotype that you catch “teh ghay”.
As far as the ostensibly-straight people who are having gay sex now, I think it’s more a throw-back from that time period, or maybe more self-denial than fear of persecution. I know a man that I am 110% sure is gay. But he’s married and has five kids. He’s also devoutly Christian and I think that his religious beliefs are telling him that to live as a homosexual is a sin, so he feels he must live as a heterosexual.
Even in tiny little, conservative Cumberland, we now have our fair share of _very_ out-of-the-closet gays (holding hands and other PDAs in public) who are not being harassed or anything as a result of their orientation (and about damn time says I).
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2008, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/12 "2008-06-15T15:28:20Z")
Nothing to contribute to the GQ, but the subject reminds me of [this clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivHwoyIxCxU) from _Meet The Feebles_. (Warning: SPOILERS.)
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### Author:  [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2008, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/13 "2008-06-15T18:04:02Z")
> [@mks57](#):
>
> Although the film may seem ridiculous to a modern audience, there are gay men who go cruising for teenage boys.
And the majority of rapists and child molesters are straight men with access to women and children. So?
> [@norinew](#):
>
> Even in tiny little, conservative Cumberland, we now have our fair share of very out-of-the-closet gays (holding hands and other PDAs in public) who are not being harassed or anything as a result of their orientation (and about damn time says I).
Only fitting for such a beautiful little town. I took a train ride through there one time. The scenery in the area was incredible.
(Well, I think it was Cumberland…I was little and living near Bowie at the time, so who knows?)
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### Author:  [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/14 "2008-06-16T01:09:31Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect]
(Well, I think it was Cumberland…I was little and living near Bowie at the time, so who knows?)
[/QUOTE]
It was probably Cumberland; we have a very high unemployment rate, etc. but beautiful scenery! And open homosexuality is becoming very open and acceptable around here.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/15 "2008-06-16T02:16:31Z")
Bear in mind (no pun intended) that it wasn’t like that everywhere in the bad old days. My dad sold newsppaers on streetcorners in Hollywood in the 1940’s, and when he didn’t feel like spending money on the bus or red car, he’d let some gay guy pick him up and drive him home. He was a good-looking little blond-haired kid and they’d fuss over him and… that was all they ever did. He was never afraid, and neither was my grandmother, who worked in the movies and knew plenty of gay guys (or “queers” as they were called) herself. I don’t know what the hell was going on over in Inglewood.
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### Author:  [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2008, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/16 "2008-06-16T06:03:03Z")
[QUOTE=Balthisar]
Don’t forget it’s only been a relatively few years since gayness has been “socially acceptable,” and in many respects, it’s still not “accepted” but only “tolerated.”
[/QUOTE]
I guess it depends on where you live **Balthisar**. My son just graduated from high school. A couple of the kids in his class were raised by same-sex parents, and have been in his classes since kindergarten. Some of his classmates are gay. Parents and kids alike have been part of the community for many years now. I would have to rate them as accepted.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/17 "2008-06-16T12:44:56Z")
[QUOTE=Slithy Tove]
Bear in mind (no pun intended) that it wasn’t like that everywhere in the bad old days. My dad sold newsppaers on streetcorners in Hollywood in the 1940’s, and when he didn’t feel like spending money on the bus or red car, he’d let some gay guy pick him up and drive him home. He was a good-looking little blond-haired kid and they’d fuss over him and… that was all they ever did. He was never afraid, and neither was my grandmother, who worked in the movies and knew plenty of gay guys (or “queers” as they were called) herself. I don’t know what the hell was going on over in Inglewood.
[/QUOTE]
That’s true. Even gays who were attracted to young boys did not necessarily do anything sexual with them. Benjamin Britten, for instance, was often infatuated by 13-14 year old boys (including my father), but only one ever claimed he tried anything sexual, and that Britten backed off when he refused him\*.
Back in the 40s, you were in enough trouble just being gay (it was a felony in the UK, for instance) that messing with boys was only going to make things worse.
\*Judging by the Wikipedis summary of **Britten’s Children** , a recent book on the subject, it was possibly an overreaction. Other of Britten’s boys testified that he would get into bed with them, but never touched them sexually. It’s possible that Britten had the same thing in mind, but the boy – not unreasonably – thought Britten was intending to have sex with him.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2008, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/18 "2008-06-16T13:15:29Z")
And Lewis Carroll had “special friendships” with little girls, but there is absolutely no evidence he ever acted sexually towards them. I guess that makes him hetrosexual, right?
Is it ever possible to have a discussion about gays without child molesters being brought in?
Back to the subject at hand, my mother recalled that in her youth (the 1930’s) two unmarried men living together were considered “odd,” but two unmarried women were considered to be “spinsters” who lived together for economic, safety, or friendship reasons, with no sexual connotations.
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### Author:  [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2008, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/19 "2008-06-16T13:51:52Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas]
Is it ever possible to have a discussion about gays without child molesters being brought in?
[/QUOTE]
Well the OP was specifically about homosexual child molestation. So it may be difficult to avoid it in this thread.
One of the related films was, “Girls Beware.” But it was about being attacked about men as well. I only saw the first minute or two, though. Was there ever any perception of a “Lesbian Threat” for girls? Or was there simply no concept of such a thing?
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2008, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/20 "2008-06-16T14:02:24Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas]
Back to the subject at hand, my mother recalled that in her youth (the 1930’s) two unmarried men living together were considered “odd,” but two unmarried women were considered to be “spinsters” who lived together for economic, safety, or friendship reasons, with no sexual connotations.
[/QUOTE]
[Boston marriage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_marriage)
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