May 28, 2008 | Sex & Society

Gay men charged with "crime against nature"

Raleigh, NC police charged Nelson Keith Sloan with "crimes against nature" this weekend after the 40-year-old called 911 claiming he had been assaulted. They also arrested Ryan Christopher Flynn, 25.

Sloan told authorities that Flynn bit him and then threatened to disembowel him leading to Flynn being arrested for assault. However, Sloan was also arrested because of what may have happened (read: anal sex) before the two started fighting.

"This looks like a case of a consensual act that may have gotten out of hand," said Raleigh police Capt. T.D. Hardy. "The law (against sodomy) is still on the books. Our detectives got involved in it last night and decided this was the best thing to do. What the D.A.'s office will do with it, I don't know."

Sloan, understandably, was shocked at how the police handled the incident. "I didn't allow anything," he said. "(The police) knew it and turned it around and arrested me. I have never been so humiliated in all my life. It's just awful."

North Carolina's "crime against nature" law seems to contradict a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that forbids states from treating private, consensual, adult sex as a crime. [more]

"The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives," the high court ruled in the case Lawrence v. Texas. "The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime. Their right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in their conduct without intervention of the government."

Raleigh Police Department had, at the time, agreed to only charge individuals with a "crime against nature" if it were to take place in public, not private.

This case won't get far, that's a given. However, it does make us wonder how the cops can discern what sexual activity may or may not have taken place. Sherlock Holmes would be proud.