A Texas lawmaker has defended the state keeping a defunct law banning on sodomy on the books – despite being struck down by the Supreme Court.

Sodomy laws in the US were declared unconstitutional in 2003 by the US Supreme Court – but 13 states including Texas and Louisiana are yet to repeal their defunct legislation.

To this day, Section 21.06 of the Texas Penal Code states: “A person commits an offense if he engages in deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex.”

Republican James White was asked why the law was still on the books – when he immediately moved to throw out defunct hair braiding regulations which were invalidated.

He told the San Antonio Express-News: “Absolutely, there is a difference

“[The hair regulation] was a way of disenfranchising them out of the marketplace. I don’t necessarily think this was the case with sodomy.

“[It’s like] a community coming together and having a moral standard, per se, as opposed to using the regulatory environment to disenfranchise people.

“Obviously, sodomy covers a lot of instances. It can even cover bestiality and there are a lot of public health standards and even decency standards.”

Towleroad points out that his claims are inaccurate, as the penal code explicitly covers “sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex” and not bestiality.