Homosexuality Laws Cross-Culturally

(Gay) Pride and Prejudice: An examination of homosexuality laws in American culture

In the United States, issues surrounding homosexuality have always been a controversial topic. Since the establishment of the United States as an independent country, some aspect of homosexuality has been criminalized. This essay will examine this legal phenomenon: the criminalization of a practice which causes no apparent detriment to societal function. The question of interest is that which asks why homosexuality is criminalized in American culture; what function it serves our society to legally control the practice of homosexuality, and how the control of this practice can still not be seen as prejudicial. The attempt to answer this question will be through examining a cross-cultural sociological evaluation of homosexuality's functions in a society, the history of laws against homosexual practices in the United States, the politics behind these laws, sociological theories behind homosexual laws, a look at American mainstream culture's views on homosexuality, the major arguments of those against homosexual lifestyle, and a cross-cultural examination of homosexuality laws in the past and present.

In sociological studies of homosexuality, the practice is examined in terms of the function which homosexuality fulfills within a society. One of the main sociological theories about homosexuality concerns accessibility between the two sexes. This theory states that "if, in any society, or any group within that society the access of members of one sex to members of the opposite sex for erotic, companionship or marriage purposes is persistently obstructed by features of the social structure, then there will be a tendency in the collectivities . . . high incidence of homosexual behavior and a tolerant attitude towards that behavior" (Dynes, Donaldson 1992).