A sodomy crime, in modern American law, is a non-consensual oral or anal sex act, or the same act committed against a minor or someone who cannot legally consent. Consensual sodomy between adults is not a crime anywhere in the United States and has not been since the Supreme Court’s 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas. The word still appears in federal statutes, state codes, and criminal charges, but its enforceable reach is now limited to sexual acts involving force, coercion, incapacity, or a victim below the age of consent.
What Acts the Law Covers
Legal definitions focus on specific physical acts rather than moral labels. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2246, a “sexual act” includes contact between the penis and the vulva, the penis and the anus, the mouth and the penis, the mouth and the vulva, or the mouth and the anus. It also covers penetration of the anal or genital opening by a hand, finger, or object when done with intent to abuse, humiliate, or gratify sexual desire.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2246 – Definitions for Chapter 109A Where the penis is involved, any penetration, however slight, meets the threshold. Emission is not required.
State codes vary in wording. Some use “deviate sexual intercourse,” others use “crime against nature” or “unnatural act,” and some still use the word “sodomy.” The Model Penal Code, which many legislatures used as a drafting template starting in the 1960s, defined deviate sexual intercourse as oral or anal sexual contact between people, as well as any sexual contact with an animal.2Open Casebook. MPC 213 (1962) Whatever the label, the covered conduct is the same, and the definitions apply regardless of the gender of the people involved.
Why Consensual Sodomy Can No Longer Be Prosecuted
For most of American history, states criminalized sodomy even between consenting adults in their own homes. In 2003, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas statute that criminalized same-sex intimate conduct, holding in Lawrence v. Texas that the law violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.3Justia. Lawrence v. Texas, 539 US 558 (2003) Writing for the majority, Justice Kennedy said the government cannot “demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime.”4Supreme Court of the United States. Lawrence v. Texas, 539 US 558
The decision overruled Bowers v. Hardwick, the 1986 case that had upheld Georgia’s sodomy law. Because Lawrence rested on substantive due process rather than equal protection, the protection extends to all adults, not only same-sex couples. Any law punishing private, consensual, noncommercial sexual acts between adults fails constitutional scrutiny.
Older sodomy statutes still appear in more than a dozen state criminal codes. Legislatures have not repealed them, and they can create confusion for anyone reading the code cold. Police cannot enforce them against consenting adults. In 2025, the Texas House voted to repeal the state’s 1973 law banning same-sex sexual encounters, with bipartisan support. Part of what drove that push was Justice Clarence Thomas’s 2022 concurrence in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which called on the Court to reconsider Lawrence alongside other substantive due process precedents. No other Justice joined that portion of his opinion.
When Sodomy Charges Still Apply
Lawrence protects only consensual conduct between adults. Prosecution remains fully available, and routine, when force, coercion, or an inability to consent is involved.
At the federal level, 18 U.S.C. § 2241 covers aggravated sexual abuse within federal jurisdiction, including federal prisons and military installations. The statute applies when someone forces another person into a sexual act through violence or threats of death, serious injury, or kidnapping. It also reaches cases where the perpetrator renders the victim unconscious or secretly administers a drug to impair the victim’s ability to resist. The penalty is a fine, imprisonment for any term of years up to life, or both. When the victim is under 12, there is a 30-year mandatory minimum, and a second federal conviction carries a mandatory life sentence.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2241 – Aggravated Sexual Abuse
Most states have folded what was once called “forcible sodomy” into broader sexual assault or criminal sexual conduct statutes. The label varies, but the elements are consistent: a sexual act committed without consent, through force, or against someone legally incapable of consenting. States that still use the word “sodomy” in their assault statutes typically grade the offense by the severity of force used and the age of the victim. Convictions carry lengthy prison terms and mandatory sex offender registration.
Military Prosecutions and the Article 125 Pardon
The military had its own sodomy statute for decades. Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice made “unnatural carnal copulation” a crime for any service member, consensual or not.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 925 – Art. 125. Sodomy Congress repealed consensual sodomy as a UCMJ offense in December 2013. Forcible sodomy was removed separately in 2016 and folded into the sexual assault provisions of Article 120.7The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center & School. Criminal Law Deskbook – 21 Sexual Offenses
In June 2024, President Biden issued a proclamation granting a full, unconditional pardon to service members convicted under former Article 125 for conduct that was consensual, private, and between adults 18 or older. The pardon covered qualifying convictions from May 31, 1951 through December 26, 2013. It did not apply to cases involving minors, force, fraternization violations, prostitution, or conduct with someone who could not freely refuse due to a power imbalance.8Department of Veterans Affairs. Presidential Proclamation on Certain Violations of Article 125 Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice
What a Conviction Costs
A conviction for non-consensual sodomy triggers sex offender registration under the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. Tier I offenders register for 15 years, Tier II for 25 years, and Tier III, which includes offenses involving force or victims under 13, for life.9SMART Office of Justice Programs. SORNA Requirements States can add requirements on top of that baseline.
If the victim was a minor, International Megan’s Law requires the State Department to print an identifier inside the passport book: “The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor, and is a covered sex offender pursuant to 22 USC 212b(c)(1).”10U.S. Department of State. Passports and International Megans Law All registered sex offenders must report international travel to their registry at least 21 days before departure, and failure to do so can bring federal charges.11U.S. Marshals Service. International Megans Law Complaint Form for Traveling Sex Offenders
Federal law bars anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison from possessing firearms or ammunition.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts Because non-consensual sodomy is universally a felony, that firearms ban applies to every conviction. State restrictions commonly add residency limits near schools, bars on occupations involving children, and barriers to professional licensing. Non-citizens face near-certain deportation, as sexual assault offenses generally qualify as aggravated felonies under immigration law.
Private-sector consequences are substantial. Background checks will surface the conviction and the registry listing, which effectively closes off careers in education, healthcare, childcare, and government. Housing options narrow in jurisdictions with residency restriction zones. Lifetime registration, where it applies, never expires.