Also for the past twenty years there has been a military ban on gays and the military. The Department of Defense claimed that homosexuality is incompatible with military services. While homosexuals have always served in the military they were never really welcome there. If they received a sodomy conviction that would result in a hearing followed by a dishonorable discharge. Today the laws have been changed again so that members of these branches have a don’t ask don’t tell policy.

While sodomy laws have been present since the time when Hen

ry IV ruled they still stand even if they may seem very outdated. These laws do not strictly look to homosexuals but that is the main objective they still do apply to heterosexuals whether married or unmarried. Sodomy is thought to be sinful because it is not something that is done for reproductive purposes.

In 1976 in a case named Doe v. Richmond, Doe claimed that sodomy laws were breaking constitutional rights to freedom of expression, privacy and also due process. The state ended up ruling against him stating that this would lead to further moral delinquency therefore sodomy would have to remain illegal.

One of the great quotes that was in this chapter was “The military gave me a medal for killing two men but wants to give me a discharge for loving on” -Leonard Mattovitch. It seems as though gays in the military are more based on homophobia than anything. When women wanted to join the armed forces they were told they couldn’t do it because they were to weak, African Americans wanted to join and people were just too racist to give them a chance and now homosexuals are thought to be bad soldiers because of their sexual orientation. We’re in the 21st century and the world is evolving rapidly around us we are going places that never was thought possible but we still have the mindset that we had years and years ago. That type of discrimination would not be acceptable if that were a woman or African American they were discharging with no premise so it really should be no different with a homosexual.

Opinions in this case vary widely, including the opinions of the judges. Chief Justice Burger made his vies known that sodomy was from the ancient roots and should not be something based on personal preference rather the authority of the state. ON the contrary Justice Blackum expressed that it was repulsive to follow a rule of law in this day and age that was laid down when Henry IV reined. Another opinion was that of Justice Powell who felt that punishing for sodomy would violate the eight amendments (cruel and unusual punishment) because a conviction of this sort couled lead to a twenty-year jail sentence. With such harsh sodomy laws it’s hard to distinguish whether a

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