Written by Aislinn Wyatt
“The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.” Canada’s 15th, and arguably most glamorous, Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, said these memorable words in 1969, and they remain true to this day. As much as we in the Western world pride ourselves on being progressive and open-minded about sex as a culture, our laws don’t always reflect this belief.
Sodomy laws, which define particular sex acts as criminal offences, have roots in religious prohibition of sex acts, generally those which are non-procreative. While what actual acts constitute “sodomy” in these laws is often left vague, they generally include anal sex, oral sex and zoophilia. While sodomy laws could theoretically be applied to either heterosexual or homosexual couples, they are rarely ever used for anything other than persecuting homosexuals.
Canada has its own unfortunate history with sodomy laws. After removing ourselves from the British law system in 1859, Canada made sodomy worthy of the death penalty, and it stayed that way until 1869. A “gross indecency” law that was passed in 1892 targeted male-male sex in particular.
Even more appalling is that in both 1948 and 1961, the criminal code in Canada was changed to deem homosexual men as “criminal sexual psychopaths” and “dangerous sexual offenders,” titles which carried prison sentences of undetermined length. It was in 1969, when he uttered those famous words, that Trudeau introduced Bill C-150 to the House of Commons to repeal Canada’s sodomy laws.
Most of the states in America had their own sodomy laws, and only 36 of them had repealed them or had them overturned by court rulings by 2002. A 2003 Supreme Court decree finally deemed the lingering 14 states’ anti-sodomy laws invalid. However, sodomy remains illegal in about 70 countries.
Even though by comparison Canada repealed its sodomy laws early, we still have some enduring, unfortunate sex laws in this country. Firstly, the age of consent (the age at which one is deemed legally competent to consent to sex) which since 1892 had been 14 years of age, was raised to 16 in 2008 under the Tory government.
While this new law does have a five-year exception for “close in age” couples under 16 years old, this ruling ignores the fact that 14 year olds have had and will continue to have sex with individuals more than five years older than themselves. Under the new law these individuals lose the ability to make decisions about sex for themselves, stripping them of their agency and rights under the law.
With regards to anal sex, the age of consent law is still as blatantly homophobic as the sodomy laws of yester year. While the age of consent for vaginal sex is 16 years old, the age for anal sex is 18 years old. There is absolutely no reason for this disparity, except to allow the specific targeting of gay youth- under this law two consenting 17-year olds engaged in anal sex could be legally sanctioned.
Even when an individual is over the age of 18, anal sex is only legal if no more than two individuals are present, essentially deeming criminal those who enjoy group sex. This law is compelling evidence that the state, despite having no business being there, is well and truly in our bedrooms.
Another distressing sex law was passed just last month in Australia. In a grossly misguided attempt to curb pedophilia and child pornography, the Australian Classification Board has banned any pornography depicting young women with small breasts who could appear to be under 18 years old. The argument behind the law shows a grave misunderstanding of the reality of pedophilia; pedophiles are individuals attracted to children, not small-breasted women. The law will contribute nothing to the protection of children.
Australia’s new law does accomplish something, however; it defines a completely normal female body type as obscene, and classify those who are attracted to small breasted women as perverts. Some women are already made to feel that nothing less than an enormous chest is undesirable, and this law only reinforces the notion.
While there’s no doubt that great strides have been made towards a more legally sexually open society, there is still much work to be done. Australia’s new law, Proposition 8 in California and Canada’s age of consent for anal sex are all powerful reminders of just how far we still have to come.As always, here at Sexposure we want your input and questions! Got something to say or a question you’ve been dying to ask about sex? Send it to oneditor@uoguelph.ca
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