Jonah: Irregardless (as we lawyers say) of the merits of the Supreme Court
ruling on the Texas sodomy law, you may as well cherish the word “sodomy”
while you can. Looks like it won’t be with us much longer. From Monday’s
New York Post: “The terms ’sodomy’ and ‘deviate sexual assault’ will be
stricken from New York’s law books under legislation approved by lawmakers
in the waning hours of the Legislature’s just-completed session. The
substitution of new terms does not affect criminal penalties for those acts,
but advocates said it is important to expunge archaic language that
stigmatizes sexual-assault victims and gay people. The legislation replaces
the term ’sodomy’ with ‘criminal sexual act’ and ‘deviate sexual
intercourse’ with ‘oral sexual conduct’ or ‘anal sexual conduct.’ The
changes were included in a bill negotiated among Gov. Pataki and legislative
leaders that amends a far-ranging sexual-assault law enacted three years
ago. The bill was approved Friday by the state Senate and Assembly during a
flurry of activity that marked the end of the Legislature’s session.”