Last edited: March 04, 2002

Calendar for February

February 1

1816 — Four English sailors aboard the Africaine are hanged for sodomy following a major scandal. Two others are flogged—one with 200 lashes and the other is sentenced to 300, but receives only 170 when the attending physician warns that any more would endanger his life.

1916 — A California appellate court upholds the "lewd and lascivious act" conviction of a man for having been found on a bed "in contact" with his partner.

1955 — A California appellate court upholds an oral copulation conviction after the jury saw graffiti referring to the defendant as "queer."

1964 — The committee reviewing the New York criminal code recommends repeal of the consensual sodomy law.

February 2

1809 — The Illinois Territory receives the statutory law of Indiana, adopting its harsh sodomy law.

1960 — The Florida Attorney General issues an opinion that most crimes, including sodomy, can not be prosecuted on Indian reservations, so long as at least one of the parties to the act is an Indian.

1965 — A Florida appellate court rules that a "lewd, lascivious or indecent assault or act upon a child" is a lesser included offense within the "crime against nature."

February 3

1859 — Kansas reduces the penalty for sodomy from 10 years-life to a maximum of 10 years.

1942 — The West Virginia Supreme Court rules that emission is not required for conviction of sodomy.

1958 — A New York court dismisses a disorderly conduct charge against a Gay man, saying there was no evidence that he did anything wrong.

1960 — The Ohio Supreme Court denies a habeas corpus release from prison for sodomy. The U.S. Supreme Court later refuses to hear the case.

1964 — The New Mexico Supreme Court rules that, since the state’s sodomy law prescribes only a minimum penalty, a sentence of life imprisonment is permissible.

February 4

1864 — Idaho outlaws sodomy with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

1869 — South Carolina abolishes the death penalty for sodomy, but fails to include a new penalty.

1893 — A Gay sex scandal begins in Denmark and later Friedrich Hammerich, son of a prominent judge, is arrested. The press claims that Hans Christian Andersen started a seduction chain leading to the present scandal.

1981 — Rep. Jon Hinson (R-MS) resigns from the House following an arrest for attempted sex in a public restroom with another man.

1982 — Police in Kingston, Jamaica use tear gas to disperse a crowd of 2,000 which has gathered at a hospital to see two Lesbians in such a tight embrace that they required medical attention to be separated.

February 5

1957 — The Iowa Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of a farmer for fellating consenting teenagers.

1993 — A Texas appellate court upholds a public indecency conviction for masturbating in a public restroom. The police had spied the activity through roof holes. The court finds that, because the activity could have been seen by anyone in the restroom, the police could use the roof holes.

February 6

1907 — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rules that juveniles are not entitled to a lesser sentence for sodomy.

1918 — Two Oregon prisoners file suit against the sterilization law. One is a Gay man convicted of sodomy. He succeeds in convincing the Eugenics Board to change its position regarding him and the straight prisoner decides to allow himself to be castrated.

1957 — A bill to end the half-century-old ban on probation for sodomy is introduced into the Ohio House of Representatives. It passes committee, but never becomes law.

1991 — The Maryland Court of Special Appeals rules that a sodomy defendant can not demand an inquiry into the sex practices of his partner to determine if he is an accomplice.

February 7

1706 — Queen Anne disallows the 1700 Pennsylvania sodomy law that included flogging and castration provisions, unaware that it had been changed less than a month earlier.

1877 — The Dakota Territory reduces the maximum penalty for sodomy from life to 10 years.

1950 — The Maine Supreme Court rules that cunnilingus is a "crime against nature."

1966 — The New Jersey Supreme Court overturns the conviction of two prisoners for forcible sodomy on another because a third prisoner said during the trial that all of them had engaged in sodomy with the victim. Evidence also is presented at trial to show that the victim was the lover of one of the defendants.

1980 — The Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds the right of police discriminatorily to enforce prostitution and solicitation laws against Gay men.

1984 — A Michigan appellate court upholds the applicability of the gross indecency law to consenting adults.

February 8

1791 — New Hampshire restricts its sodomy law to male-male acts only, and retains the death penalty.

1826 — Delaware lowers the penalty for sodomy from death to 60 lashes given publicly, a $1,000 fine, and three years of solitary confinement in prison.

1854 — Texas amends its common-law reception statute to create specific penalties for common-law crimes, thus eliminating the death penalty for sodomy.

1949 — Georgia reduces the penalty for sodomy from compulsory life imprisonment to 1-10 years.

1960 — A California appellate court upholds the constitutionality of the state’s oral copulation law.

1963 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals upholds the solicitation conviction of a man with the corroborating evidence that he had put forth no character witnesses for himself.

1973 — The Alabama Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the state’s sodomy law.

February 9

1889 — The Texas Court of Appeals reverses the conviction of two men for consensual sodomy with a third man because he was an accomplice and needed corroboration, even though two witnesses caught them in the act.

1948 — A California appellate court upholds the sodomy conviction of a Catholic priest. The evidence used to convict him included that he was unmarried (despite being a priest), that he was "known in San Francisco," and that he stayed in a hotel with blacks.

February 10

1798 — Kentucky passes its own sodomy law after six years of living with the law of Virginia.

1831 — A new criminal code in Indiana repeals the state’s sodomy law, but retains the common-law crimes reception statute. This makes sodomy a capital offense again.

1832 — Florida gives juries total discretion to sentence a sodomy (via the common-law reception law) defendant to the penitentiary or to a fine.

1872 — South Carolina passes a new criminal code, setting the penalty at five years in prison. The code retains the term "buggery."

1887 — Idaho eliminates the specific reference to life imprisonment for sodomy, but states no maximum.

1911 — In Germany, the League for the Protection of Mothers endorses repeal of the German sodomy law and opposes its extension to cover women, calling it "a serious mistake."

1950 — A Pennsylvania court convicts a man of sodomy as an accessory before the fact for driving two teenagers to a friends house and watching them have sex.

February 11

1779 — Vermont adopts English common law, making sodomy a capital crime.

1860 — Texas passes a sodomy law, going off the common-law crimes statute. The new penalty is 2-15 years.

1958 — A New York appellate court overturns the disorderly conduct conviction of a man because there was absolutely no proof that he had loitered or solicited.

1963 — Colorado restores the "crime against nature" law to its indeterminate sentencing law.

1974 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals rules that Gay bath houses are public nuisances per se.

February 12

1951 — The Missouri Supreme Court rules that consent is no defense to a charge of sodomy.

1992 — The Oregon Court of Appeals rules that the state’s public indecency law preempts local ones and that, under the controlling state law, public nudity must be for purposes of sexual gratification in order to trigger a violation.

1999 — The Montana House defeats a bill to remove the invalidated sodomy law from the books on a 50-50 tie.

February 13

1812 — The U.S. Supreme Court rules that there are no common-law crimes against the federal government. Since there is no federal sodomy law, this guarantees that there can be no federal sodomy prosecutions.

1953 — The New Mexico Supreme Court rules that the state’s "crime against nature" law does not prohibit fellatio, which it calls "baser than the practices of pagans." In its opinion, the Court drafts a model law to cover such practices, recommending its adoption by the state legislature.

February 14

1635 — Two men are charged with sodomy in New Hampshire, but are not prosecuted, because it was not thought "fit" to try them there.

1787 — New York, which has been operating under the English sodomy statute for nearly a century, passes its own law, retaining the death penalty.

1902 — A New York appellate court overturns the sodomy conviction of a man for sex with a teenager of limited mentality whose father coached him in what to say in trial.

1963 — The Washington Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction after the "victim" was asked leading questions in the trial.

1973 — An Oklahoma appellate court upholds a sentence of 15 years in prison for consensual sodomy.

1975 — Virginia passes a new criminal code, keeps consensual sodomy as a felony, and increases the maximum penalty from three to five years.

February 15

1839 — Mississippi passes a sodomy law, doing away with its reliance on the common law to prosecute it. The penalty is set at a maximum of 10 years in prison.

1858 — A proposed new criminal code for the District of Columbia, which includes a sodomy law with a penalty of 2-10 years, is defeated 73%-27% by District voters.

1893 — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in the first such case in the United States, rules that fellatio is not a "crime against nature."

1913 — The Idaho Supreme Court rules that the state’s sodomy law, with no maximum penalty established, permits a sentence of life imprisonment.

1967 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals rules that police do not have to detain potential defense witnesses in public restrooms when they arrest people for solicitation therein.

February 16

1843 — The Iowa Territory passes its own criminal code and makes no reference to sodomy or common-law crimes, keeping it legal.

1923 — The Wisconsin Attorney General issues an opinion that any person convicted of sodomy can have a professional license taken away.

1945 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals upholds an "indecent assault" conviction in a case of consensual sex in the absence of a sodomy law.

1951 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals upholds a solicitation conviction and rejects the argument that the defendant could not be guilty because of his honorable discharge from the military.

1968 — The Maine Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction even though there are doubts as to the truthfulness of the accusations.

1972 — The Maryland Court of Special Appeals rules that the state’s sodomy law applies to married couples.

February 17

1755 — Georgia enacts a law making it a crime to deny that Georgian laws are in force, thus showing that English laws are not recognized. Since Georgia has no sodomy law, this shows that the English sodomy law was not considered in force.

1905 — In Ohio, a man is sent to the State Reformatory for sodomy even though the records state that he "proved" his absence from the crime scene. He spends two years in the Reformatory.

1923 — Utah amends its sodomy law to outlaw oral sex and to increase the penalty to 3-20 years.

1950 — Georgia repeals its ban on probation for sodomy.

February 18

1854 — Alabama is the first state in the nation to make conviction of the "crime against nature" a specific grounds for divorce.

1893 — The Washington Supreme Court notes that Washington has no sodomy law, even though it is indictable under the common-law statute.

1930 — The Iowa Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction despite "conflict and contradictions" in the testimony.

1937 — Vermont outlaws oral sex, which the statute calls "fellation."

1957 — The Arkansas Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of a man committed on a blind boy of borderline intelligence, after the trial judge determined him competent to testify because "he believes in God" and had the Bible read to him.

February 19

1821 — Maine enacts a new sodomy law. It retains the male-only provision of the Massachusetts statute, but sets a one-year minimum penalty.

1926 — A California appellate court upholds a sodomy conviction based on photographs without any relationship to the case found in the defendant’s vest.

February 20

1775 — In Frisia, the Netherlands, two teenage servants are banished for three years for "toleration of sodomy."

1852 — Delaware eliminates the flogging penalty for sodomy and substitutes time in the pillory before imprisonment.

1939 — The Indiana Supreme Court rejects the contention of a man and woman convicted of sodomy that oral sex only between people of the same sex is sodomy.

1959 — The Idaho Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of Gordon Larsen, one of the Boise victims, despite inflammatory remarks by prosecutors at his trial. The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review the decision.

1973 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals rejects a First Amendment challenge to Gay men soliciting for sex.

1974 — A California appellate court rejects a challenge to the constitutionality of the state’s oral copulation law.

February 21

1788 — New York amends its sodomy law to also require the forfeiture of estate of convicted sodomites.

1903 — New York City police raid the Ariston baths and arrest 26 men for sexual activity. The others in the place are released with a warning and made to leave the building passing through a jeering crowd that had gathered.

1947 — A New York court upholds the conviction of a man for public indecency for sending a young man a letter stating his desire to fuck him. A month later, another court frees him because there was actually no law against what he did.

1963 — American Samoa passes a sodomy law, basing it on the Georgia law, so that two women can not be prosecuted under it.

1963 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals upholds another solicitation conviction of a man with the corroborating evidence that he had put forth no character witnesses for himself.

1975 — The Washington Court of Appeals rejects a defendant’s contention that fellatio was not a violation of the state’s sodomy law.

February 22

1861 — North Carolina amends its sodomy law to eliminate the need to prove emission of semen, but retains the death penalty.

1972 — The Missouri Supreme Court upholds that state’s sodomy law.

1973 — The California Supreme Court overturns public restroom sodomy convictions because of police surveillance from above in a doorless stall.

February 23

1921 — The Washington Supreme Court denies the right of defendants in sodomy cases to challenge the morality of the prosecuting witness.

1966 — The Maine Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the state’s sodomy law, but overturns the conviction of an openly Gay man because of prejudicial remarks of the prosecutor.

1966 — The Louisiana Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction even though a witness not connected to the case was permitted to testify.

1983 — The New York Court of Appeals strikes down the state’s loitering law in a case brought by a Gay man.

1989 — A Michigan appellate court overturns a gross indecency charge against a man for fondling an undercover police officer’s clothed crotch area and refuses to follow case law in the state by limiting the scope of the law to nonconsensual acts.

February 24

1863 — The Arizona Territory receives the laws of New Mexico, which includes its common-law reception statute, making sodomy a crime punishable by life imprisonment.

1938 — A California appellate court upholds an oral copulation conviction of a man in a hotel after naval investigators listened in and heard his bed squeaking.

1975 — The Louisiana Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of that state’s sodomy law.

February 25

1784 — Georgia passes a new law adopting English statutes and common law. A survey of what statutes had been adopted by this law revealed that it did not include the buggery statute, making sodomy legal in Georgia.

1914 — The North Carolina Supreme Court rules that fellatio violates the state’s "crime against nature" law.

1976 — Indiana passes a new criminal code that repeals its sodomy law.

1983 — The Rhode Island Supreme Court rules that the enactment of a comprehensive sexual assault reform law did not impliedly repeal the crime against nature law.

February 26

1897 — An all-male house of prostitution is raided in Eureka, Utah. The owner and three prostitutes are arrested.

1915 — Nevada enacts a broadly worded vagrancy law that prohibits only males from being out late at night for purposes of lewd or dissolute conduct.

1943 — Oklahoma outlaws solicitation for a sexual act.

1955 — Wyoming raises the maximum penalty for sodomy from 5 years to 10 years.

1986 — The Oklahoma Court of Appeals rules that the state’s crime against nature law can not be constitutionally applied to people of the opposite sex, but makes no ruling on the same sex, since it was not at issue in the case.

February 27

1801 — Congress passes a criminal code for the District of Columbia by incorporating the laws of Maryland into that part of the District ceded by Maryland and the laws of Virginia into that part ceded by Virginia. Slaves in both portions get the death penalty, but free persons get imprisonment, and a flogging in the Maryland portion.

1931 — The Michigan Supreme Court overturns a gross indecency conviction because other acts with other partners were admitted as evidence.

1976 — South Dakota passes a new criminal code that repeals its sodomy law.

1977 — Wyoming repeals its sodomy law in a sexual offenses revision.

February 28

1799 — The Mississippi Territory’s first criminal code contains no mention either of sodomy or common-law crimes.

1894 — The Massachusetts Supreme Court rules that sodomy indictments do not have to be specific.

1994 — The Louisiana Supreme Court rules that solicitation for sodomy without an offer of compensation does not constitute an attempt to commit sodomy.

February 29

1936 — A California appellate court upholds the oral copulation conviction of a man with a 12½-year-old boy with a high IQ and who already was experienced at procuring.

1956 — A Texas appellate court upholds the sodomy conviction a man after prosecutors asked witnesses if they knew the defendant had 30 previous arrests.

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