Letter: Excessive laws
The Providence Journal-Bulletin,
April 22,1998
75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902
(Fax 401-277-7346)
letters@projo.com
As far as "sodomy" laws are concerned, Rhode Island's are excessive in
nature, discriminatory in practice, and command the among the harshest punishments in the
nation. The common assumption that sodomy laws apply only to homosexuals is false. As
written, RI's apply to heterosexuals as well as homosexuals and, yes, that even includes
married couples.
Failure to comply with the Kama Sutra of the State of Rhode Island can result in a 20
year prison sentence, yet the real difficulty with these laws isn't the harshness of the
penalties: it is, by the Attorney General's own admission, that they are applied neither
universally, nor fairly.
The assumption that repealing anti-consensual-sex laws will lead to greater promiscuity
and larger numbers of people being infected with HIV is unsupported imagination at work.
It is pure foolishness to presume that the law is the only guide people use to govern and
protect themselves.
-- Michael Keach
[Home] [News] [Rhode Island]
