A sodomy law is a law that defines certain sexual acts as crimes. The precise sexual acts meant by the term sodomy are rarely spelled out in the law, but are typically understood and defined by many courts and jurisdictions to include any or all forms of sexual acts that are deemed to be "illegal", "illicit", "unlawful", "unnatural" and/or "immoral". Sodomy typically includes anal sex, oral sex, manual sex, and bestiality. In practice, sodomy laws have rarely been enforced to target against sexual activities between individuals of the opposite sex, and have mostly been used to target against sexual activities between individuals of the same sex.
Burning of the accused sodomites outside the walls of Zürich, 1482 (from the Spiezer Schilling chronicle)
Depiction of the buggery of a goat, by Paul Avril
Sodomy, also called buggery in British English, generally refers to either anal sex between people, or any sexual activity between a human and another animal (bestiality). It may also mean any non-procreative sexual activity. Originally, the term sodomy, which is derived from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Book of Genesis, was commonly restricted to homosexual anal sex. Sodomy laws in many countries criminalized the behavior. In the Western world, many of these laws have been overturned or are routinely not enforced. A person who practices sodomy is sometimes referred to as a sodomite, a pejorative term.
François Elluin, Sodomites provoking the wrath of God, from Le Pot-Pourri de Loth, 1781
The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, John Martin, 1852
Dante and Virgil interview the sodomites, from Guido da Pisa [it]'s commentary on the Commedia, c. 1345
Monks accused of sodomy burned at the stake, Ghent 1578