Sodomy fellatio cunnilingus pederasty... Father why do these words sound so nasty?

Here's a great re-cap of yesterday's oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court concerning the Texas sodomy case. The legal issues are confusing, even to the Court it seems. Bowers v. Hardwick, the 1986 sodomy law challenge in which the Court found that sodomy laws were not objectionable from a Constitutional standpoint, hung on the issue of whether intimate sexual activity constituted a fundamental right that should be beyond state interference. In Bowers, the court decided it was not a fundamental right, largely on the basis of the fact that there has been no historical tradition of granting that right. Rather, the reverse has usually been the case, not just in same sex intimate relations, but with respect to pro-creation, opposite sex intimate relations, bigamy, bestiality, and a host of other things.

So, folks arguing the case seem to be avoiding that line of argument, as it's unlikely that the Court would directly overturn a decision that is only thirteen years old. The second argument stems from the 'equal protection' clause of the Constitution, under which the state can't deprive a certain class of citizens of a right unless it has a very good reason for doing so.

To me, this seems more likely to succeed. What possible interest could Texas, or any other state have, for preventing same sex couples (or opposite sex couples in a handful of states) from having sexual relations that will not result in procreation? Here, the poor attorney from Texas had a very tough time.

It seems to be no secret how justices Rehnquist and Scalia are going to vote. When it was raised that it is general consensus that most states don't feel they have any business regulating intimate relations between married couples, Scalia responded, "I think they do."

Yikes.

So it all comes down to Sandra Day O'Connor, David Souter, and Anthony Kennedy, the moderately conservative swing voters.

Andrew Sullivan points out that given the fact that 90-95% of married couples engage in oral sex from time to time, legally, we are all sodomites.

I think that argument is clever, but I doubt that many who are sitting on the fence are going to swayed by it.

Why? I have no idea why, but in my experience, heterosexuals are universally freaked out by gay sex. Not lesbian sex, mind you. I know of few straight men who don't think the idea of two women getting it on is not way hot. But something about the insertion of an erect penis into an anus will drive your most gay-friendly, liberal, PFLAG member stright person to distraction.

I can't figure out if it's the penis or the anus that's the problem. I mean, there is the whole thing about viewing your anus as a source of pleasure, as it's also associated with feces, and we're taught since potty training that feces is bad. And possibly the whole Assault on Masculinity thing plays into it, although I can't see straight women being too upset about that.

I think it's a Disgust-reaction. Disgust is genetically hardwired. It's the reaction that minimizes the likelihood that something known to be toxic or suspected to be so will get from the surrounding environment into your body.

In the movie Caddy Shack, there is a scene that demonstrates this universal principle brilliantly. There's a long brown object floating in the swimming pool, causing everybody to clear out. Lot's of eewwwww's from the audience. Then, Bill Murray('s character) scoops it out of the water and takes a bite out of it, proclaiming it to be a candy bar. Not toxic feces, just yummy desireable food.

Another example. If I asked you to swallow the saliva in your mouth (*gulp*), that's not much of a problem. Now, imagine I ask you to fill up a Dixie cup with spit, and then tell you to drink it down. Again: Eeewwwww!

Because the mouth is generally the only oriface that permits things to enter the body, the anus and the idea of anything entering the anus produces disgust.

Or at the very least, takes some getting used to. But you can get used to it.

You can get really used to it.

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