The Kansas Court of Appeals has upheld a criminal sodomy conviction and a 17-year prison sentence for a teen-age boy who had consensual oral sex with another boy of nearly 15, reports an US gay news website.

Matthew Limon had just turned 18 in February 2000 when he had oral sex with a male schoolmate of 14 years, 11 months. At the time, both were residents at a boarding school for developmentally disabled youth.

Under Kansas law, heterosexual teens who are under 19 and within four years of each other's age are not prosecuted under the same statutes that govern adult statutory rape and are instead given a lighter sentence under a provision called the "Romeo and Juliet" law.

However, that law applies only to heterosexual teens. If Limon had instead performed oral sex on a 14-year-old female, he would have received 12 months in jail.

Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called the "Romeo and Juliet Law" unconstitutional because it gives lesbian and gay youth much higher prison sentences than straight youth who engage in the same behaviour.

"The only difference between a year in jail and 17 years is whether or not you're gay," said Matt Coles, Director of the ACLU Lesbian & Gay Rights Project.

The Equal Protection clause of the US Constitution forbids singling out a group of people - based on bigotry toward that group - and punishing them more severely for the same behaviour. "That's exactly what Kansas is doing," Coles said.

"The question here isn't whether young adults should be punished for unlawful sexual activity. It's whether gay people should be punished more severely than straight people for committing the same crime," he continued.

Although the issue of sodomy has reached the appellate level in the state of Kansas a few years ago but has yet to be addressed by the state supreme court. Kansas is one of five states that outlaws sex acts for gays only, arguably violating the equal protection clause as well as other constitutional ideas of justice.

While James Esseks, litigation director for the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project thinks the Limon case may well be appealed to the Kansas high court, he said he will not be surprised if the high court declines to review it.