Strangers In a Prudish Land

Welcome to Dominica. Don't bum-boink.

Everyone has that one friend who was arrested for doing something stupid. Something like yanking a stop sign out of the ground or streaking. Something that's just dumb. But being arrested for having sex in public is a whole other matter. That's a charge with all sorts of social shame attached to it. Especially if you happen to be gay.

Last month, two  passengers on a gay-cruise ship docked on the island of Dominica (where sodomy* is illegal) were arrested for having sex on the balcony of the ship while it was in port. This is a country where sodomy is illegal; the two guys were imprisoned on the crime of 'buggery' and were subjected to what they referred to as inhumane treatment.

The worst postscript ever: The photo of the two guys doing it surfaced on the Internet. Yes, someone actually took a picture of the two of them in the act and then gave it to a reporter. Voyeurs much?

"Human beings are animals!"

This whole incident made me feel very conflicted. It is absolutely horrible that these two men were subjected to horrible treatment while in prison. The idea that the arresting officer said 'You're being arrested for being gay' is difficult to conceive in this day and age.

But at the same time... these dudes had sex on the balcony of a ship. In plain view of the mainland. The cruise ship company should have absolutely told its passengers that the island the ship was boarding at had laws against sodomy and not to do anything that could be labelled as such in public. But these guys chose to play with fire. They had sex on a the balcony of a ship, something I think all of us would probably think twice about. Or three times. Or twenty.

Maybe it's okay in international waters?

No matter who these two guys were, they made a stupid mistake. But this arrest got me thinking about sodomy laws in general. If you're thinking literally, these laws are supposed to be about the act of anal sex. Not about gay people committing. I've yet to hear about a heterosexual couple being arrested for sodomy anywhere (if you have heard of this, please tell me!). Sodomy in its literal definition isn't only committed by gay people. So why are only gay people being arrested?

The answer is simple: Laws regarding sex are weapons. If a body of power (a government, a church, etc.) has the ability to dictate when and how to have sex, a lot of your own personal freedom goes right out the window. Because that's your bedroom stuff. As in between you and anyone else you personally decide to invite.

A lot of people argue that sodomy laws protect against bestiality, or sex that involves people getting hurt. If this were the case and these laws are truly against bestiality and/or types sexual activity that genuinely hurt people/animals (though not if we're talking about S&M, that's a completely different situation), why are they being used to target homosexuals? Not all gay people commit domestic violence, and not all of them have had sex with the family dog. Show me a study that says gay people are more likely to hump horses or beat their partners. Then we'll talk.

Sodomy laws target homosexuals because, like S&M, they are sexual beings that don't fit the Dick-and-Jane narrative people usually have regarding sexuality. How sad that a law that an invasive law trying to tell people how they can and can't have sex (already bad enough) is being used to punish gay people for enjoying sexual relations with each other. Dennis Mayer and John Hart made a stupid mistake, and were arrested for it. They shouldn't have had sex in a highly public place, in a country with strict sodomy laws. But if they were doing what they were behind closed doors (or even curtains), no one would ever ever have the right to barge into their bedroom and tell them what they were doing was wrong.

Unless, of course, they were invited to join the happy couple.

"Dude, we should totally ask that blue-and-purple one over tonight."

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*I need to take a minute and say that I actually love the word sodomy. It's derived from the name of the town of Sodom, one of the 'sinful' towns God destroyed in the Old Testament (the other was Gomorrah). As a Christian, it's darkly amusing to see a word from the Bible describing a type of sin used consistently in the law. Separation of church and state indeed.