Monday, February 5, 2007

Why is Michael Devlin not an alleged rapist?

I found this on CNN about Michael Devlin, that guy who kidnapped those two kids in Missouri:
A 41-year-old Missouri man accused of kidnapping two boys was charged Monday with multiple counts of forcible sodomy.

St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch has filed 71 charges against pizzeria manager Michael Devlin.

The first 18 counts -- one count of kidnapping and 17 of forcible sodomy -- relate to last month's abduction of a 13-year-old boy; the remainder are kidnapping and forcible sodomy charges related to the 2002 abduction of a now-15-year-old boy.
Not knowing what "forcible sodomy" is, I looked it up in the Missouri penal code:
A person commits the crime of forcible sodomy if such person has deviate sexual intercourse with another person by the use of forcible compulsion. Forcible compulsion includes the use of a substance administered without a victim's knowledge or consent which renders the victim physically or mentally impaired so as to be incapable of making an informed consent to sexual intercourse.
Forcible rape is:
A person commits the crime of forcible rape if such person has sexual intercourse with another person by the use of forcible compulsion. Forcible compulsion includes the use of a substance administered without a victim's knowledge or consent which renders the victim physically or mentally impaired so as to be incapable of making an informed consent to sexual intercourse.
That's right, forcible rape and forcible sodomy, in Missouri, are exactly the same thing, except forcible sodomy is for "deviate sexual intercourse". Both carry a penalty of five years to life.

What Michael Devlin is accused of doing is absolutely terrible. He, if he did what he's accused of, chose to ruin the lives of two young boys. This is not a gay issue; it's a criminal issue. But that's not what this post is about. This post is about the gay issue that's being inserted into this criminal issue by the state of Missouri.

While both crimes carry the same punishment and have the same surrounding legal issues (follow those links; the two laws are cut-and-paste versions of each other), "forcible sodomy" carries the extra word "deviate". I'm guessing the word deviate is there because of the assumption of anal sex, because according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook:
Oral or anal sexual intercourse with another person, forcibly and/or against that persons will; or not forcibly against that persons will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity.
"Rape" is defined by the same handbook as "carnal knowledge" done forcibly. Straight sex deserves euphemism; gay sex is labeled as deviate. Not just when it's forced, but in general.

It's hard to see any reason for this but to label a rapist off on the gay community and insult our sexuality at the same time. But why, in this day and age, is such a rhetorical device necessary? Why can't Devlin be an alleged rapist, not an alleged sodomist?

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