You'd think with nearly 100,000 Flint residents facing a water crisis, Michigan would be busy passing laws to ensure citizens' safety—but the state might be more concerned with its residents' sex lives than drinking water. A new bill makes it possible for someone to receive up to 15 years in prison for oral and anal sex in Michigan.
Senate Bill 219 was originally created to crack down on animal cruelty, according to Detroit Free Press. Also known as "Logan's Law," the bill was named after a Siberian husky someone intentionally burned with acid.
The Michigan Senate passed Bill 219 in a 37-1 vote last Thursday, and an update to its language introduced by state Sen. Rick Jones reads: "A person who commits the abominable and detestable crime against nature either with mankind or with any animal is guilty of a felony."
This crime could be punishable by up to 15 years in prison, or a life sentence if the person charged is already considered a sex offender.
Because Bill 219 says "with mankind," some LGBToutlets have argued that the wording equates sodomy with bestiality, which could make any act of oral or anal sex a felony. Anti-sodomy laws have been used to criminalize homosexuality internationally, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional in 2003.
Still, the Associated Press reported that 12 states—including Michigan—still have anti-sodomy laws.
Jones, a Republican senator, told The New Civil Rights Movement that changing the words "with mankind" would potentially put the entire bill at risk:
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. 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.
Though anti-sodomy laws like Michigan's are unconstitutional, they have been used to arrest people recently. According to The Advocate, two men were arrested in Louisiana last year under the state's defunct sodomy law.
