Chronology of the sodomy laws in the United States

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Until well into the second half of the 20th century, the term “ sodomy ” in English-speaking countries condemned all sexual practices that were not heterosexual vaginal or oral intercourse . The name, which also coined the legal and judicial language in the USA , was used in particular to brand homosexual acts.

Criminal law in the US is a matter of state ; the sodomy laws were also always passed at the state level. The following chronology are federal laws ( state laws ) as well as decisions of the US Supreme Court compiled and other high courts that criminalize so-called sodomy in the US. The chronology also includes laws and supreme court decisions with which sodomy laws were repealed.

chronology

Before the founding of the United States

1625 In Virginia , Richard Cornish is hanged under the sodomy law for raping another man . It is the first known case of an execution from the American colonies for a, in this case, violent sexual relationship with another man who was in bondage . It is not known whether the sentence was passed by a legal authority.
1648 Elizabeth Johnson of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is the first woman on the soil of the later United States known to have been persecuted for having a sexual relationship with another woman.
1656 The New Haven Colony , which was later united with Connecticut , passed the first law in what would become the United States to make sexual relations between women a criminal offense; it declared this a capital crime . However, no prosecution took place under this law.
1682 The by Quakers controlled Pennsylvania is the only American colony does not classify sodomy as a felony. The criminal law introduced here in 1682 provided for a maximum prison sentence of six months for sodomy. This leniency ended when the Quakers lost their political influence.
1700 Pennsylvania introduces a new sodomy law that is restricted to men and provides life imprisonment for a first offense, with the possibility of repeated flogging in the first year of imprisonment. Married offenders should be castrated and the wife can be offered a divorce.
1704 New Jersey passes law giving general impunity. Only eleven crimes were excluded from this regulation. Since sodomy was not among them, it was not persecuted in New Jersey for many years from then on.
1772 Pennsylvania is the first American colony to require bail from those convicted of sodomy who intend to enter the colony to ensure their conduct.

1776-1800

1786 Pennsylvania becomes the first state to abolish the death penalty for sodomy.
1793 Maryland passes a law, unique in American legal history, that allows people convicted of sodomy to be used in street cleaning and repair work.
1796 New Jersey is the first state, sodomy as a "crime against nature" ( crime against nature ), respectively. This usage of language later became widely used.
1798 Rhode Island abolishes the death penalty for a first offense of sodomy, but maintains it if it is repeated. The law is unique in the USA.

19th century

1801 In California, which at the time was still subject to Spanish law, the death penalty for sodomy will be carried out for the last time in the history of that state. The convict, 18-year-old Jose Antonio Rosas, will be executed by shooting.
1807 In Indiana , Governor William H. Harrison , who later became President of the United States, signed a particularly strict sodomy law, which included flogging .
1810 The Maryland Court of Appeals , the state's supreme court, publishes the first sodomy case in US legal history. Due to deficiencies in the indictment, the lawsuit is dismissed.
1812 For the first time in American jurisprudence, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that ejaculation was not necessary to constitute sodomy. Later, almost all other American states followed this view.
1814 A court in New York publishes the first case in American jurisprudence of a defamation lawsuit involving allegations of sodomy.
1815 Ohio makes adultery a criminal offense and in this context expressly prohibits women from having sexual relations with other women. This law only prohibits men from having intercourse with “other women”.
1817 In Georgia sodomy for the first time declared a criminal offense. Georgia is the only one of the former British colonies where sodomy was always legal until then.
1821 In Connecticut, the death penalty for sodomy is being replaced by life imprisonment.

The Supreme Court of Massachusetts is the first Supreme Court a federal state, which deals with a case of homosexual obscenity is concerned.

1822 The Supreme Court of Alabama decides that the Common Law (applicable in the sodomy as a crime) was not in Alabama into force. The court reversed this decision in 1930.
1824 In Louisiana , for the first time in American legislature history, lawyer and politician Edward Livingston is proposing a criminal law that would have repealed the state's sodomy law. The proposal is rejected.
1827 Illinois is the first state to deny the right to vote and serve on a jury to those convicted of sodomy .
1833 Georgia passes a unique sodomy law that defines sodomy as "sexual intercourse and an unnatural relationship between a man and a man, or in an equally unnatural way with a woman." What women and men were legally allowed to do with each other is thus determined by what men can do with each other. The law also exempts lesbians from prosecution.
1842 With Florida , a US state is introducing the death penalty for sodomy for the first time since the USA was founded. However, it is not carried out.
1845 Florida passes law to prohibit those convicted of sodomy from giving evidence in court. De jure , homosexuals are deprived of the opportunity to go to court if they have suffered an injustice.
1854 Alabama is the first state to pass a law that allows the spouse to divorce if the partner committed sodomy before or during the marriage.
1858 In the District of Columbia , voters are opposed to a sodomy law for the first time.
1863 As the first US Supreme Court , the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the killing of a person ( deadly force ) is permissible if it is to prevent an act of sodomy.
1864 Arkansas does away with the racial discrimination that still exists in gay criminal law by introducing the death penalty for everyone in the case of sodomy. However, no death sentences were carried out under the law.
1867 When the United States acquired Alaska in 1867 , there was no criminal law there. Until 1884, sodomy is no more criminal in Alaska than is murder, rape, arson, and any other crime.
1868 Wyoming introduces a sodomy law. Although sodomy remains a criminal offense in Wyoming until 1977, it is the only state that has never published a case of sodomy.
1869 South Carolina is abolishing the death penalty for sodomy but is forgetting to create a successor law that regulates an alternative penalty. A corresponding law will be reintroduced three years later.
1873 The Court of Criminal Appeals in Texas prohibits the vaguely worded criminal laws, notes that there is no "crime against nature" in that State. When the ban on vague penal laws was lifted in 1879, “crimes against nature” could be prosecuted again.
1876 Ohio is the first state to make sex toy possession a criminal offense.
1879 Pennsylvania is the first state to explicitly criminalize fellatio . Cunnilingus is not included in the law.
1881 A new criminal law in Indiana states that a person over the age of 21 is liable to prosecution for helping a person under the age of 21 to masturbate . Cunnilingus is also punishable under this provision.
1886 For the first time in American case law, an Ohio appeals court ruled that two women could not be prosecuted for sodomy.
1889 Washington is the first state to constitutionally guarantee its citizens a right to privacy .
1890 Mississippi states that sodomy trials must take place behind closed doors.

Oklahoma introduces criminal law for the first time and explicitly criminalizes marital sodomy.

1892 Iowa passes a sodomy law for the first time.
1893 The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the first appeals court to deal with a fellatio case that is to be punished under general sodomy law. He decides that fellatio is not a sodomy.

Washington passes a sodomy law for the first time. It is the only case in the history of the American legislature that a sodomy law was enacted against the will of the governor (here: John McGraw ).

1895 For the first time in American jurisprudence, an Ohio court ruled that an act of extramarital sodomy constituted adultery.
1896 Louisiana criminalizes oral sex.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the first appeals court to handle the case of two heterosexual individuals who allege that the sodomy law does not apply to heterosexual individuals. The court does not accept this argument.

1897 Michigan passes a law unique in the history of American law prohibiting both men and women from seducing boys.
1898 New Jersey allows anyone to kill anyone who attempts to commit sodomy.
1899 The Vermont Supreme Court , which has no sodomy law, rules that sodomy can be prosecuted in this state on the basis of common law .

20th century

1905 Delaware is the last state to abolish the pillory for convicted sodomists.
1907 Indiana Passes US (and World) First Sterilization Bill . This law affects all convicted criminals, including convicted sodomists.

A new law in Iowa requires first-time sodomy offenders to be sent to a state reformatory instead of jail .

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the first American court to investigate whether juveniles can be sentenced to the same sentence for sodomy as adults. The court answered this question in the affirmative.

1908 Ohio is the first state to exempt those convicted of sodomy from parole .
1909 California is the first state to pass a law that regulates the sterilization of "sexual perverts".
1913 Seven months after the Arizona Court of Justice ruled that fellatio did not fall under common law sodomy, the legislature made fellatio an explicit criminal offense.

The Supreme Court of Idaho judges that the sodomy law of the state a minimum, but does not specify a maximum punishment. A life sentence is thus possible. An appeal court confirmed this decision in 1992.

Nebraska makes oral sex illegal.

Oregon passes a law allowing the sterilization of "sexually perverted" people.

1915 California is expanding its sodomy laws by passing a law that makes oral sex a criminal offense.
1916 Virginia extends its sodomy law to same-sex oral sex. After the Supreme Court of Virginia overturned a judgment against a heterosexual couple based on this law, the legislature amended the law to also prohibit heterosexual oral sex.
1918 As the first court in the United States, a Delaware appeals court ruled that an invitation to an act of sodomy is not an attempt to commit sodomy.
1921 The Massachusetts Supreme Court is the first American court to deal with a case of homosexual activity in a bathhouse .
1923 In a sodomy trial before the New Jersey Supreme Court , the two defendants based their defense, for the first time in American judicial history, on the argument that they had acted in private. The court does not accept the argument.
1933 Through a proclamation by the governor, Guam was given criminal law, with which a sodomy law came into force for the first time on the archipelago.
1935 Alabama Parliament passes a revised Sterilization Act that can be applied to any sexual pervert, sadist, homosexual, masochist, sodomist, or any other serious form of sexual perversion . However, following a submission to the Alabama Supreme Court to see if the ruling is constitutional and a veto by Governor Bibb Graves , the law will not go into effect.

Michigan is the first state to pass a so-called " psychopathic offender law ". On the basis of these laws, which then usually apply only to sex offenders, individuals found guilty of a sexual offense, including consensual homosexual acts, can be placed in state institutions for the mentally ill, often for many years.

1937 Claimed by the United States since 1898, Puerto Rico introduces a sterilization law. It will be the last sterilization law to be introduced in US territory and the last to also affect "sexually perverted" people.
1938 For the first time in American legal history, an appeals court in Georgia ruled that thigh intercourse does not constitute sodomy.
1939 The Georgia Supreme Court is the first American court to publish a case of sodomy between two women. Because Georgia sodomy law does not allow for sexual activity between women, the court rules that the women cannot be prosecuted. The Georgia Legislature is making no attempt to change the law.

For the first time in American case law, an appeals court in Oklahoma found that cunnilingus was a "crime against nature".

1943 The Supreme Court of Florida ruled that reintroducing the death penalty for consensual sodomy would be constitutional.
1947 California is the first state to pass a sex offender registration act. It forces people convicted of a sexual offense - including consensual anal or oral sex - to register and report any move.
1950 New York is the first state to downgrade sodomy from a felony to a felony .
1951 A California appeals court rules that homosexual men can be jailed even if they have not committed a crime.
1952 A court in New York for the first time has a complaint against a man from having a covert police investigators had spoken in a public place with the suggestion that "fun" ( fun to have). The court found that "fun" could be anything. The example caught on in New York courts from then on.
1955 Alaska is the first state to pass a law banning the sale of comic books that depict sexually indecent subjects such as adultery, homosexuality, sadism, masochism, or other perversions .

Arkansas is reducing the minimum sodomy penalty from five years to one year. This was preceded by the observation that juries were often unwilling to find defendants who faced such high sentences guilty.

As the first Supreme Court of the US state decides Supreme Judicial Court of Maine that masturbation another person is not infringing the Sodomiegesetz.

1957 A divorce court in Ohio ruled for the first time in American jurisprudence that married couples have a constitutional right to practice sodomy.
1958 A New York court dismissed the lawsuit against a man who approached and touched an undercover police agent in a toilet. The court found that there was no evidence of a disturbance of the public calm, which would have been a prerequisite for a conviction, in this case.
1959 Wisconsin passes a law, unique in US history, that bans those convicted of sodomy from obtaining a driver's license.
1960 The Florida Attorney General rules that an act of sodomy committed on an Indian reservation between two Indians, or between an Indian and a non-Indian, does not come under the criminal law of the state. This decision is unique in American legal history.
1961 Illinois is the first state to repeal its sodomy law.

The New Mexico House of Representatives passes a new criminal code that legalizes consensual sodomy. However, the State Senate rejects the law, and so it does not come about.

The New York Court of Appeals , the highest court of the state, ruled that only the penetrating partner is criminally liable for anal sex. In the following year, the New York legislature closed the “loophole” by making passive participation an express criminal offense.

1962 As the first supreme court in the USA, the Supreme Court of California decides that privacy is given in closed toilet cubicles. Consensual homosexual sex in such toilets is therefore not punishable.
1963 In American Samoa , a new criminal law comes into force, which is based on the laws of Georgia and excludes the lesbians from prosecution for sodomy. American Samoa had no sodomy law since it fell to the United States in 1899.
1965 New York is the first state to specifically exempt married couples from the sodomy law.

For the first time in American jurisprudence, an Ohio court ruled that a statute prohibiting the promotion of an "unnatural sexual act" was inadmissible. It justified its decision by stating that this formulation was impossible to define.

1968 Even in the course of a criminal law reform, which was largely based on the Model Penal Code drafted in 1962 , Georgia adhered to its sodomy law and extended its scope to include lesbians.
1969 A law signed by Governor Ronald Reagan in California allows "sexual psychopaths" to be treated solely by means of prayer.

Kansas is the first state to legalize sodomy for mixed-sex partners.

1970 Connecticut's transportation officer refused to issue a driver's license to a man previously convicted of sodomy on the grounds that "his homosexuality makes him unfit to drive." The Connecticut Attorney General upheld this decision. The driving license applicant concerned later commits suicide.

For the first time in American history, a US federal court is repealing the sodomy law of a state (here: Texas). The US Supreme Court later reversed this repeal.

1971 Alaska accidentally legalizes oral sex as part of a legislative amendment to simplify language . When the state's highest court of justice points this out, the legislature makes no attempt to correct the "error" and later repeals the remaining parts of the Sodomy Law .

Idaho repeals its sodomy law. However, after massive protests by the Mormons and the Catholic Church , the law was reintroduced in 1972.

Arkansas is the first state to legalize sodomy when both partners agree. However, during Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade in 1977, same-sex sodomy law was reintroduced.

1972 Ohio repeals its sodomy law. It is the first state to introduce gender-neutral sex penal laws and the first to abandon the terms "perversion" and "unnatural" and introduce "modern" terms for sexual activity.

The District of Columbia government resolves to stop prosecuting consensual sodomy that takes place in private.

For the first time in American law, Maryland is proposing a change in law that removes the sodomy ban, but introduces an age of consent instead . The proposal is rejected.

1973 Texas leads the less discriminatory formulation "homosexual behavior" (in its criminal code homosexual conduct one). At the same time, it reduces the maximum fine to a fine of $ 200; this is the mildest sentence in the country.
1974 Puerto Rico is introducing a sodomy law that is unique in the USA, which makes anal sex a criminal offense, but oral sex only between people of the same sex.
1975 For the first time in American judicial history, a trial court in Florida has ruled that a gay bathhouse is a private place where sexual activity is constitutionally protected.
1976 For the first time in American jurisprudence, the New Jersey Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit against two men who had sex in a car parked in a dark area on a major thoroughfare. The court follows the defendants' reasoning that it was nearly impossible to see them.

South Dakota sets the age of consent for sodomy at 13 years. This is the lowest age of consent nationwide. After a controversy, the age of consent is raised to 15 years two years later.

1977 Nebraska repeals its sodomy law. This is the only case in American legislative history where the legislature has overridden the governor's veto by abolishing a sodomy law .
1981 Montana passes law that allows for not only a prison sentence but also a fine of up to $ 50,000 for sodomy. This is the highest fine for sodomy in US legal history.
1982 After Congress gives the District of Columbia the right to self- government, the District of Columbia passes a new law that repeals the previous sodomy laws. After a veto by the House of Representatives , Congress withdrew its recognition of this law.

Louisiana is the first state to determine that the demand for (financial) compensation for an act of sodomy constitutes consummate sodomy.

1983 Wisconsin is abolishing its sodomy law, but - in order to get enough votes in parliament for the decision - it must include a disclaimer that the state does not encourage sexual activity outside of marriage. This law is unique in the USA.
1986 The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that prosecuting people of the opposite sex for sodomy is unconstitutional.

In the Bowers v. Hardwick declared the United States Supreme Court the law of sodomy in Georgia and found the plaintiffs' appeal to the constitution "facetious" (in German: "drollig / sarcastic / witty"). This will only be revised in 2003.

1989 The Kansas Supreme Court rules that the state's sodomy law does not apply to cunnilingus. The legislature reacts promptly with an amendment law, through which cunnilingus is expressly made a criminal offense. Since the new regulation also includes heterosexual cunnilingus, resistance soon arose, which was followed by a new law that legalized heterosexual cunnilingus again.
1990 An Idaho appeals court, following rulings from numerous other states, ruled that sexual activity that takes place in a closed toilet cubicle is protected by the constitution. The trial is the last in American legal history in which a man comes to court for masturbating in a toilet cubicle.

The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that the sodomy law does not apply to heterosexual activity.

21st century

2003 In the case of Lawrence v. Texas made the Texas sodomy law unconstitutional. This decision renders sodomy laws ineffective in all American states in which such laws exist.
2007 The Republican majority in the Utah House of Representatives declines to discuss a motion to finally repeal the invalid sodomy law.
2014 In the state of Virginia, the sodomy law is formally abolished in a 100 to 0 vote against.

Regulations in the individual colonies and states

Regulations in the 13 British Colonies

colony Legal position
New Hampshire 1679 A sodomy law based on the Book of Moses came into force , which initially made fellatio , cunnilingus , frottage and mutual masturbation a punishable offense, but was tightened in 1718.
Massachusetts and Maine Plymouth Colony: A sodomy law entered into force in 1636 which provided for the death penalty and, unlike the British law on which it was based, was not restricted to acts between men. 1671 adaptation of the wording to the 3rd book of Moses.
Massachusetts Bay Colony: 1641 enactment of a sodomy law based on the Book of Moses. 1684 renewed entry into force of the English criminal law.
Massachusetts: New sodomy law entered into force in 1697, providing for the death penalty but restricted to acts between men.
Rhode Island In the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations , a law was passed in 1647 that made sodomy a felony and a death penalty; In 1663 the wording was slightly changed, in 1729 the law was fundamentally reformulated, although the death penalty remained. Prosecution under these provisions first came about in 1670.
Connecticut In the Connecticut Colony , the common law of Great Britain had been in force since 1638, which classified male sodomy as a capital crime. In 1642 a law of sodomy came into force, which was based on the wording of the 3rd book of Moses. Several people were executed or flogged in public under this law. The New Haven Colony passed a law in 1656 that also made female sodomy a death penalty. This law, which was unique in the history of the 13 colonies, lasted until Connecticut's annexation of the colony in 1665. In 1672 Connecticut amended its sodomy law and exempted first-time offenders and those under the age of 15 from the death penalty.
New York and Vermont Three cases of sodomy are known from the Dutch colony of Nieuw Nederland , which existed from 1624 to 1667 . However, it is not known under which law these cases were dealt with. Since Dutch criminal law did not apply in the colonies, it is assumed that either there was a separate sodomy law (the wording of which has been lost) or that a sodomy ban was derived from natural law . After the colony was taken over by Great Britain, a sodomy law was passed in 1665 with the wording of Leviticus, which provided for the death penalty for male perpetrators who were at least 14 years old and were not victims of an attack. New York City fell under British law again in 1691, so that from then on the British sodomy law also applied here.
New Jersey The area of ​​New Jersey belonged to the Dutch colony Nieuw Nederland until 1667. As a separate British colony, New Jersey passed a law of sodomy in 1668 based on the Book of Moses, which exempted those under the age of 14 and victims of assault from the death penalty. When the colony split up into West New Jersey and East New Jersey in 1676 , sodomy was treated differently: Quaker- dominated West New Jersey enacted a penal code in 1681 that made no mention of sodomy; East New Jersey passed a sodomy law in 1683, which gave very vague indications of the sentence. In 1688, James II reintroduced British law in both colonies that provided the death penalty for sodomy. This situation persisted even after the reunification of the two colonies in 1702.
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania has been under the rule of the Duke of York since 1676, who introduced a law of sodomy here based on the Book of Moses, which provided for the death penalty but excluded those under the age of 14 and victims of assault. After the establishment of William Penn's Quaker Colony, the sodomy law was revised in 1682; the death penalty was replaced by the possibility of whipping, partial expropriation and imprisonment. Repeat offenders could be placed in prison for life. When Penn fell from grace in 1693, English laws reverted to law under which sodomy was a capital offense. From 1694 to 1722 the sodomy law was changed again and again; between 1700 and 1706 it was also possible in Pennsylvania to castrate married male offenders.
Delaware As a Swedish colony, Delaware had been explicitly under Swedish law since 1653. After the area fell to Great Britain in 1664 and Pennsylvania was incorporated, Pennsylvania sodomy law also applied here. In 1704, however, Delaware became an independent British colony with its own penal laws, about which there is no tradition. All that is known is that a sodomy law came into force in 1719, which was based on English law and provided for the death penalty for sodomy.
Maryland Although Maryland was given the right to enact its own laws as early as 1632, in practice English laws applied.
Virginia The residents of Jamestown Colony had formally had the same "freedoms, rights and immunities" as the residents of England since 1606, but British laws were not in force here. From 1611 to 1621, sodomy was tried under military law. A regular sodomy law, the exact provisions of which have not been recorded, came into effect only after the Virginia government was granted partial autonomy in 1621.
North Carolina Although Carolina had had the right to pass laws of its own since 1663, sodomy laws only came into effect after the province was divided into two colonies, North Carolina and South Carolina in 1712. North Carolina adopted English common law in 1715 , under which sodomy was a capital offense, but could only be committed by men.
South carolina When South Carolina became a separate colony in 1712, South Carolina passed several overlapping sodomy laws, including one that provided the death penalty and dispossession for male offenders.
Georgia Established as a penal colony, the Province of Georgia was the only one of the 13 British colonies that did not have a sodomy law. Nevertheless, there were occasional criminal prosecutions.

Repeal of the sodomy laws in each state

The US states with the year in which the respective sodomy laws were repealed.
State Maximum penalty Year of cancellation Further information
Alabama 1 year / $ 2,000 000002003 Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court ( Lawrence v. Texas ).
Alaska 000001980
Arkansas 1 year / $ 1,000 000002002 Classification as an offense; same sex acts only. The law has been declared unconstitutional by the Arkansas Supreme Court ( Picado v. Jegley ).
Arizona 30 days / $ 500 000002001 Classification as an offense. Overruled.
California 000001976 Overruled.
Colorado 000001972 Overruled.
Connecticut 000001971 Overruled.
Delaware 000001973 Overruled.
Florida 60 days / $ 500 000002003 Classification as an offense. Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court ( Lawrence v. Texas ).
Georgia 20 years 000001998 Classification as a capital crime. Declared unconstitutional ( Powell v. State ).
Hawaii 000001973 Overruled.
Idaho Lifelong 000002003 Classification as a capital crime. Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court ( Lawrence v. Texas ).
Illinois 000001962 Overruled.
Indiana 000001977 Overruled.
Iowa 000001978 Overruled.
Kansas 6 months / $ 1,000 000002003 Classification as an offense; same sex acts only. Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court ( Lawrence v. Texas ).
Kentucky 000001992 Declared unconstitutional by the Kentucky Supreme Court ( Commonwealth v. Wasson ).
Louisiana 5 years / $ 2,000 000002003 Classification as a capital crime. Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court ( Lawrence v. Texas ).
Maine 000001976 Overruled.
Maryland 10 years / $ 1,000 000001999 Classification as a capital crime. Declared unconstitutional by the Maryland Supreme Court ( Williams v. Glendening ).
Massachusetts 20 years 000001974 Classification as a capital crime. Declared unconstitutional by the Massachusetts Supreme Court ( Commonwealth v. Balthazar ).
Michigan 15 years 000002003 Classification as a capital crime. Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court ( Lawrence v. Texas ).
Minnesota 1 year / $ 3,000 000002001 Classification as an offense. Declared unconstitutional ( Doe, et al. V. Jesse Ventura, et al. ).
Mississippi ten years 000002003 Classification as a capital crime. Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court ( Lawrence v. Texas ).
Missouri 1 year / $ 1,000 000002003 Classification as an offense; same sex acts only. Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court ( Lawrence v. Texas ).
Montana 10 years / $ 50,000 000001997 Unconstitutional by the Montana Supreme Court ( Gryczan v. State ).
Nebraska 000001978 Overruled.
Nevada 000001993 Overruled.
New Hampshire 000001975 Overruled.
New Jersey 000001979 Overruled.
New Mexico 000001975 Overruled.
new York 000001980 Only acts between unmarried people. Declared unconstitutional ( People v. Onofre )
North Carolina 3 years 000002003 Classification as a capital crime. Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court ( Lawrence v. Texas ).
North Dakota 000001975 Overruled.
Ohio 000001974 Overruled.
Oklahoma ten years 000002003 Classification as a capital crime; same sex acts only. Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court ( Lawrence v. Texas ).
Oregon 000001972 Overruled.
Pennsylvania 000001980 Declared unconstitutional ( Commonwealth v. Bonadio ). 1995 repealed by the legislature.
Rhode Island 20 years 000001998 Classification as a capital crime; acts of unmarried couples only. Overruled.
South carolina 5 years / $ 500 000002003 Classification as a capital crime. Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court ( Lawrence v. Texas ).
South Dakota 000001977 Overruled.
Tennessee 000001996 Declared unconstitutional ( Campbell v. Sundquist ).
Texas $ 500 000002003 Classification as an offense; same sex acts only. Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court ( Lawrence v. Texas ).
Utah 6 months / $ 299 000002003 Classification as an offense. Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court ( Lawrence v. Texas ).
Vermont 000001977 Overruled.
Virginia 5 years 000002003 Classification as a capital crime. Declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court ( Lawrence v. Texas ). Formally abolished in 2014.
Washington 000001976 Overruled.
West Virginia 000001976 Overruled.
Wisconsin 000001983 Overruled.
Wyoming 000001977 Overruled.
District of Columbia 10 years / $ 1,000 000001995 Reformed in 1993, repealed in 1995.

Individual evidence and further information

  1. on the State of Idaho v. Limberhand ( Memento from August 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. queer.de: Utah: Homo-Sex officially illegal , March 6, 2007
  3. queer.de: Virginia abolishes the gay ban
  4. ^ Sodomy Laws: New Hampshire ( August 13, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Sodomy Laws: Massachusetts ( August 11, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive )
  6. Sodomy Laws: Rhode Island ( August 20, 2008 memento in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ Sodomy Laws: Connecticut ( August 13, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ Sodomy Laws: New York ( Memento of February 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ^ Sodomy Laws: New Jersey ( August 11, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive )
  10. ^ Sodomy Laws: Pennsylvania ( August 13, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive )
  11. ^ Sodomy Laws: Delaware ( Memento August 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ^ Sodomy Laws: Maryland ( August 13, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive )
  13. ^ Sodomy Laws: Virginia ( Memento of May 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ^ Sodomy Laws: North Carolina ( August 13, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive )
  15. Sodomy Laws: South Carolina ( January 27, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive )
  16. ^ Sodomy Laws: Georgia ( August 13, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive )

See also

Web link