Animal Cruelty Bill Bans Anal, Oral Sex Among Humans

LANSING, MI – Updated animal cruelty legislation aimed at protecting animals from abuse keeps intact Michigan’s decades-long anti-sodomy laws criminalizing oral and anal sex among humans.

SB-0219, which is part of the anti-animal-cruelty package designed to curb dog-fighting and other acts of animal cruelty, is sponsored by Sen. Rick Jones, a Grand Ledge Republican, and has a bipartisan list of co-sponsors:

Sens. Marty Knollenberg, R-Troy; Steven M. Bieda, D-Warren; David Knezek, D-Dearborn Heights; Jack Brandenburg, R-Harrison Township; Tory Rocca, R-Sterling Heights; and Mike Kowall, R-White Lake.

The proposed legislation passed a voice vote of the Michigan Senate by a vote of 37-1 Thursday.

When the U.S. Supreme Court found anti-sodomy laws were unconstitutional in the landmark 2003 ruling, Lawrence v. Texas, Michigan’s anti-sodomy law was invalidated, along with similar statutes in Texas and a dozen other states.

But Michigan kept its law on the books. It also bans beastiality, treating as the same sexual acts between consenting humans and people who have sex with animals. The proposed legislation states, in part, that “a person who commits the abominable and detestable crime against nature either with mankind or with any animal is guilty of a felony,” which is punishable by 15 years in prison.

Further, the proposed legislation states that “a sexually delinquent person” may face a felony punishable by up to life in prison.

The New Civil Rights Movement noted:

“Some states’ sodomy laws specifically target gay relations, but Michigan’s is among those that make oral and anal sex crimes illegal regardless of whether they’re same-sex or different-sex. Michigan is also one of several states with a sodomy ban that’s intertwined with a prohibition on bestiality — effectively equating the two.”

Jones told The New Civil Rights Movement that removing the sodomy ban would jeopardize the chances of passage of the so-called “Logan’s Law,” proposed after the horrific abuse inflicted on a family pet, an 11-year-old Siberian husky named Logan, that was blinded by an acid burn in 2012 and died a few months later.

“The minute I cross that line and I start talking about the other stuff, I won’t even get another hearing. It’ll be done,” Jones told The New Civil Rights Movement. “Nobody wants to touch it. I would rather not even bring up the topic, because I know what would happen. You’d get both sides screaming and you end up with a big fight that’s not needed because it’s unconstitutional.”

Jones said the best way to repeal the unconstitutional sodomy ban would be in a catch-all bill that would strike all unconstitutional laws from the Michigan code.

“But if you focus on it, people just go ballistic,” he said. “If we could put a bill in that said anything that’s unconstitutional be removed from the legal books of Michigan, that’s probably something I could vote for, but am I going to mess up this dog bill that everybody wants? No.”

The Advocate, which said Michigan took “one step forward and two steps back” with the approval of SB-0219, said that despite the fact that anti-sodomy laws were declared unconstitutional more than a decade ago, they were used last year to arrest two men in Louisiana. Globally, The Advocate said, anti-sodomy laws are often used to criminalize homosexuality.

» Photo of Logan, a Siberian husky, before he was fatally blinded by a chemical burn via Logan’s Law Facebook page