In 1973, when the #txlege met to modernize laws on sexual conduct, legislators repealed the beastiality law but added the homosexual conduct law. There was a period of time in Texas history where beastiality was completely legal, but having consensual gay sex was not.

Dale Carpenter, who teaches constitutional law at SMU and wrote the book on Lawrence, told me that some legislators may hope that one day, should Obergefell or Lawrence be overturned, they can enforce the sodomy law again.

"I call these laws kind of like an unused whip," Carpenter told me.