Constitutional protection of sexual privacy in the 1980s: what is big brother doing in the bedroom?

In virtually all states, statutes define sodomy, 'crimes against nature,' and other sexually related activities as major felonies. Their existence has often been the object of ridicule and scorn. Read literally, these statutes impose severe criminal penalties on any homosexual activity, regardless of the setting, as well as a variety of sexual practices between heterosexuals, married or not. They are sometimes referred in the statutes only in the most Victorian terms, and sometimes listed in what would appear to be unnecessary detail. The language of some state statutes allows criminal courts almost limitless discretion to interpret what is feloniously 'unnatural' or 'unspeakable'