Topeka ? Kansas can punish illegal sex with children more harshly when it involves homosexual acts, the state Court of Appeals ruled Friday in a case being watched by national advocacy groups.

Judge Henry W. Green Jr. wrote in the 2-1 decision that legislators could justify differing penalties for homosexual and heterosexual sodomy in plenty of ways, including greater health risks or to “encourage and preserve the traditional sexual mores of society.”

The ruling by Kansas’ second-highest court rejected an appeal by Matthew R. Limon, who was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for having sex when he was 18 with a 14-year-old boy in 2000. Limon was convicted of sodomy.

Had Limon’s partner been an underage girl, Limon could have been convicted of unlawful sex under the state’s “Romeo and Juliet” law and sentenced at most to one year and three months in prison.

The American Civil Liberties Union argued that the differing sentences represented unconstitutional discrimination against gays, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down state laws, including one in Kansas, criminalizing gay sex between consenting adults.

However, the appeals panel said that the June decision did not apply to sex acts involving children.

Tamara Lange, an ACLU attorney representing Limon, said she was likely to ask the Kansas Supreme Court to review the decision, though she has not ruled out asking the Court of Appeals to reconsider.

“This decision is not a victory for morality or a victory for Kansas,” she said. “It’s a victory for prejudice and fear.”

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline said the decision preserved the Legislature’s right to set criminal sentencing policy. He reiterated his contention that Kansas laws banning same-sex marriages or sex with minors could have been undermined had the ACLU been successful in overturning Limon’s sentence.

Kline also noted that Limon had been convicted twice before of similar crimes. He accused the ACLU of trying to portray Limon as having “a loving teen relationship” when Limon was “convicted for the third time of molesting a child.”

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“I think sentencing of a period of years in that instance is appropriate,” Kline said during a news conference.

But Lange dismissed Kline’s arguments as “smoke and mirrors” and said that the sex with the other boy, identified only as M.A.R., was consensual. Both Limon and the other boy lived at a group home for the developmentally disabled near Paola.

“Any rational person who hears about the real facts of this case recognizes it’s completely unfair for Matthew Limon to be sitting in prison for 17 years for having a consensual sexual relationship,” she said.

In the appeals panel’s majority opinion, Green said legislators could have several reasons for setting up differing sodomy penalties, just as they can justify making it illegal to furnish alcohol to children but not to adults.

“The Legislature could have reasonably determined that to prevent the gradual deterioration of the sexual morality approved by a majority of Kansans, it would encourage and preserve the traditional sexual mores of society,” Green wrote.

In addition, he wrote, “Medical literature is replete with articles suggesting that certain health risks are more generally associated with homosexual activity than heterosexual activity.”

The dissenting judge, G. Joseph Pierron Jr., said the state had no rational basis for the differences in sentencing.

“We grant deference, not blind acquiescence, to legislative findings,” Pierron wrote. “This blatantly discriminatory sentencing provision does not live up to American standards of equal justice.”

Kansas law makes any sexual activity involving a person under 16 illegal. The 1999 “Romeo and Juliet” law, however, provides lesser penalties for consensual sex when one partner is 19 or under and the other partner’s age is within four years.

Susan Sommer, an attorney for the gay rights group Lambda Legal, which was involved in the case that led to June’s Supreme Court ruling, said the Kansas court was “deaf to the spirit and teaching” of that ruling.

“This is an opinion that reflects an archaic set of attitudes about homosexuality that the U.S. Supreme Court completely transcended,” she said.

But Richard Thomas, president and chief counsel for the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., which advocates traditional values, said it was appropriate for the Legislature to support heterosexual relationships “that children ultimately will have when they become adults.”

“It is in the state’s interest to safeguard the psychological well-being of minors who may be developing their sexual identities,” he said.

The case is State v. Matthew R. Limon, No. 85,898.