"Will either of the two candidates in the December 18 State Senate race eliminate [the 'crimes against nature'] law?

Creigh Deeds, perhaps? He was introduced last Wednesday at a Downtown Mall event by an early patron of bills to decriminalize consensual sodomy, State Senator Mary Margaret Whipple (D-Arlington), and indeed Deeds pays lip service to quashing the statute.

'It's an archaic law - no question about it,' Deeds told this reporter. Then what about his two votes - one in committee and one on the House floor - against killing the statute in the year 2000?

Deeds responds with his belief that the law is largely restricted to 'public displays.'

.....

"Curiously, Republicans, who have in recent years increasingly utilized the word 'libertarian' in their proclamations, have shown some hostility to what would seem like a simple victimless crime.

'The law's a hot potato,' Northern Virginia legislator Karen Darner once told C-VILLE. 'Most of my colleagues agree in private that the law's absurd, but they don't want to be caught saying that publicly.'

We tried to get Jane Maddux's opinion for this story by leaving messages at home, work, and mobile phone. But the candidate seems to be pursuing an avoid-the-media strategy.

Perhaps everyone's just following the lead of the founding fathers. After all, Virginia got its sodomy law (complete with the death penalty) in 17921, and no less a man than Charlottesville hero Thomas Jefferson wrote that the appropriate penalty was castration" (Hawes Spencer, C-VILLE Weekly, December 18-24, 2001).

Dear Mr. Loper:

It seems Jefferson followed the standard thinking of his time regarding sodomy. He supported some type of dismemberment or castration for this offense, which was typical during this part of history.

I did not read the article, but I think what the article in C'ville is referring to is Bill No. 64, A Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishments in cases Heretofore Capital. It says: Whosoever shall be guilty of Rape, Polygamy, or Sodomy with man or woman shall be punished, if a man, by castration, if a woman, by cutting thro' the cartilage of her nose a hole of inch half inch diameter at the least." (Jefferson Papers, Princeton University Press, V. 2, p. 305). This bill was defeated.

Now, I see in Jefferson's handwriting he wrote sodomy should be punished by castration, but I can't verify if he approved of the woman's offense found in the above bill. It seems that the bill found in the Jefferson Papers'
volume is the one worked on by a committee. So, they could of added this later.

Jefferson again talks about sodomy in his Notes on the State of Virginia (1781) in Query 14 and he states dismemberment.

So, I recommend you take a look at volume 2 pp. 303-506 which talks about the revision of state law in Virginia and No. 64. Also, you can also check your local library to find some material on the history of punishment and sodomy, to get a proper context.

I hope this helps you in your project. Thanks for your inquiry.

Bryan Craig, Research Librarian, Jefferson Library, Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. (electronic mail, December 18, 2001).

Editor's Note: I have not been able to determine whether there are actually any current Virginia laws on the books for which the punishment is castration or cutting through the cartilage of a nose.

In 1997, the great state of Texas did adopt a voluntary surgical castration law for child molesters who are repeat offenders.