The Louisiana House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly against a bill that would strike down the state's longstanding statutory ban on sodomy on Tuesday — with 67 members voting to keep anti-sodomy provisions in the law, 27 voting to remove them, and 11 not voting.

The bill would have amended the state's "crimes against nature" statute, in part, to remove language banning sodomy between people of both the same sex and opposite sex because it was found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 and cannot be enforced by state or local officials. In the case, Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court found that such laws violate the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Rep. Patricia Smith (D-Baton Rouge) introduced the repeal bill in January, following incidents in which sheriffs deputies in her district arrested at least a dozen men who agreed to have consensual sex with male undercover officers under the law — placing the sodomy ban under scrutiny. The area district attorney; however, did not prosecute the men under the unconstitutional law, according to The Times-Picayune.

Eleven Democrats — John "Andy" Anders (D-Vidalia), James Armes (D-Leeville), Michael Danahay (D-Sulphur), Jerry Gisclair (D-Larose), Mickey Guillory (D-Eunice), Dorothy Sue Hill (D-Dry Creek), Robert Johnson (D-Marksville), Sam Jones (D-Franklin), Bernard LeBas (D-Ville Platte), Eugene Reynolds (D-Minden), and Harold Ritchie (D-Bogalusa) and one Independent representative voted against the bill.

And only three Republicans voted in favor of the bill: Franklin Foil (R-Baton Rouge), Lowell Hazel (R-Pineville), and Nancy Landry (R-Lafayette).