On FridayÂ anÂ Alabama appeals courtÂ ruled the stateâ€™s ban on consensual same-sex intercourse unconstitutional. Prompted by the conviction of a man in 2010 and his subsequent yearlong incarceration, this decisionÂ (Dewayne Williams v. State of Alabama) comes 11 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled all anti-sodomy laws in the United States unconstitutional in the caseÂ Lawrence v. Texas.

By the time ofÂ Lawrence v. TexasÂ in 2003, all but 14 states had removed their bans through legislative or judicial action. Yet, despite the Supreme Court ruling, Alabama is only the third state whose statute was overturned with the case to actually remove the anti-sodomy law from the books, along with Montana and Virginia.

Last year, theÂ arrest of 12 men Â in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, attracted national attention. The incidentÂ substantiated claims that police were using the existing statute to target gay men for persecution, despite it being a clear violation of federal law. The district attorney refused to prosecuteÂ the man, saying the lawÂ was unenforceable, and the case was dropped. Nonetheless, moves to formally repeal the ban have since been defeated

States that still retain their anti-sodomy laws are Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.

James McDonaldÂ is a Brooklyn-native currently based in Scotland. When not pouring through the letters of Mary, Queen of Scots in pursuit of an MLitt Scottish History degree at the University of Glasgow, youâ€™ll find him typing away. To date, his writing has been featured inÂ Haaretz, the Huffington Post, theÂ Lambda Literary Review, Gayletter, Thought CatalogÂ andÂ The Outmost, with more (hopefully) on the way. Follow him@jamesian7Â