Basically, the sodomy laws were written and passed with an apparent understanding that they would not strictly enforced. There are almost certainly gay bars in Texas and hotels where people who meet in such bars go. If the Republic of Texas really wanted to enforce the sodomy statutes, it's clear it could do a much better job.
That isn't to say the statutes are intended never to be enforced. If two men were to start humping each other on a park bench in broad daylight, few people would have any problem charging them with the sodomy statute.
The issue is, in a sense, one of degree. If a cop is letting people by who are driving 60mph in a 55 zone, that would not interfere with his authority to ticket someone who was doing 70, but would all into question a ticket issued to someone doing 56.
The problem in the extant case is that there's no real sign that the people did anything significantly worse than thousands of other people whom the police could have arrested and caught if they had any interest in doing so. The arrest of these two individuals was due to entirely arbitrary circumstances.
I oppose the enforcement of the law in the extant case not because I support sodomy, but rather because an essential aspect of tyranny is the passage of laws which will be sparsely enforced and widely disobeyed, but which can be enforced at will against anyone the state doesn't like.
do you oppose states rights to proscibe conduct, sexual or otherwise?
Yeah, that's the ticket. < /sarcasm>