The British purported to revolutionize the regulation of male-to-male sex in Mandate Palestine. They criminalized consensual sex between adult males (not previously outlawed), and they created a statutory distinction (non-existent in England at that time) between forced and consensual male-to-male sex. Chapter 2 examines the cultural narratives underlying both of these offences and inquires which stories were deemed implausible. The analysis demonstrates that the boundary between ‘sodomy’ (forced sex) and ‘unnatural offences’ (consensual sex) was not sharply drawn in practice and that both acts were underlain by the scenario of an older and more affluent man penetrating a younger and poorer one. The statutory penetrator/penetrated distinction was congruent with contemporary local Arab traditions of age- and status-stratified male sex roles. Stories surrounding the prosecution of non-consensual ‘sodomy’ focused mostly on ‘blameable’ victims and on sex with children (for which proof of force was not required), and ‘unnatural offences’ were underpinned by narratives of unequal power relations. These underlying narratives reflect two local myths about male-to-male sex. The first is that sexually involved men were not social equals and that the better-positioned man penetrated his less fortunate partner; the second is that an adult male could not be raped.