ABSTRACT
In the 1970s and 1980s, gay legal activists increasingly concluded that sodomy statutes had to be challenged by gay rights lawyers. Associating homosexuals with sodomy and with criminal activity had been at the core of earlier governmental action against gay men and lesbians. Bowers v. Hardwick produced three specific legal holdings. To understand the opinion, one must consider all three holdings. They are: homosexual sodomy is not a fundamental right, a state legislature need only show a rational basis for criminalizing homosexual sodomy, and the promotion of public morality is a sufficiently rational basis to justify the criminalization of homosexual sodomy. Hardwick had repercussions with respect to arguments that did not directly involve challenges to sodomy statutes. The very reason the movement had focused on sodomy challenges had been with the hope of making it easier to win arguments in other arenas such as employment discrimination and family law.
