# 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:** 6
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2008, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/61 "2008-07-01T23:55:48Z")
[QUOTE=Jeep’s Phoenix]
I had [this](http://www.amazon.com/Never-Talk-Strangers-Personal-Safety/dp/B000FMQ5Y8/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214955350&sr=8-3) “stranger danger” book when I was a small child (early '80s), and I think my mom still has it. That thing was way over the top…it’s OK to let a clown or the Easter Bunny into your house, but don’t get in the late-model sedan driven by the guy with the snazzy haircut and aviator sunglasses
[/QUOTE]
Check, so…[he’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy) okay?
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### Author:  [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2008, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/62 "2008-07-02T00:19:47Z")
[QUOTE=LouisB]
Back in Dallas in the 1950s, it was called “The crime against Nature” and if one party was an adult and the other under age, the adult could expect to also be charged with “contributing to the delinquency of a minor.” As was posted earlier, the adult’s name and address would be published and it isn’t going too far to say that his life could be in danger. This isn’t a Texas bash, but homosexuality simply wasn’t tolerated in Dallas, back in those days.
[/QUOTE]
They didn’t do that to adults that molested little girls?
Did they do that in situations where no children were involved, and it was just two male adults together?
I’m not saying that homosexuals had it easy, but I think a lot of the violence and hatred against them is exaggerated.
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2008, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/63 "2008-07-02T00:38:15Z")
[QUOTE=Mosier]
They didn’t do that to adults that molested little girls?
Did they do that in situations where no children were involved, and it was just two male adults together?
I’m not saying that homosexuals had it easy, but I think a lot of the violence and hatred against them is exaggerated.
[/QUOTE]
You have no idea what you’re talking about. None.
They did do that in situations involving consenting adults. Sodomy was an actual crime in many states until very recently. It was prosecuted right up to this decade.
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### Author:  [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/64 "2008-07-02T16:27:26Z")
> [@shiftless](#):
>
> This reminds me of an article in The Atlantic a while back on being gay in Saudi Arabia (somewhere around there). I don’t have any more to add except to say that it is clearly possible to find the love, no matter how hardcore the laws are.
I remember that article. It’s a pretty bad situation over there – single men (and married men whose wives are on the rag, on vacation, sick, etc.), who are still considered straight, use bottoms (the “gay” ones) for sex and break their hearts, because according to the strict interpretation of Sharia law, two men can be alone together but a man can’t be alone with a woman who isn’t his wife. It’s pretty much non-stop hypocrisy all the way around. Bottoms basically serve the same function as tissues over there, apparently–they can be used for sex, but if they got in a real relationship with a man, they’d probably get lashed or stoned or worse.
> [@jayjay](#):
>
> Sodomy was an actual crime in many states until very recently. It was prosecuted right up to this decade.
Still is, if you count most of the Middle East and Africa, among other places.
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### Author:  [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2008, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/65 "2008-07-03T00:16:15Z")
[QUOTE=Freudian Slit]
Check, so…[he’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Gacy) okay?
[/QUOTE]
Yeah…I’ve always wondered about that.
In retrospect, that book worked a bit too well…until I was in 2nd grade or so, I wouldn’t even talk to relatives at family reunions because they fit the definition (in my mind, anyway) of a “stranger”.
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### Author:  [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2008, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-how-sodomy-charges-were-handled-in-the-50s/452976/66 "2008-07-03T04:41:51Z")
Er, not to say that tissues are lashed and stoned. I think you guys knew what i meant.
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