Last edited: March 28, 2004

 

Illinois

  • Statute: Repealed 1962 (Effective date, legislation passed in 1961.)

History

            1827     Illinois is the first state to prohibit voting and jury service by anyone convicted of sodomy.

            1897     The Illinois Supreme Court becomes the first in the nation to uphold a sodomy conviction for an act of fellatio. The Court had to use an obscure law that denied civil rights to anyone convicted of “sodomy or other crime against nature.” This, the Court said, made it clear that there were many different crimes against nature.

            1913     The Illinois Supreme Court becomes the first in the nation to hear a sodomy conviction appeal for an act of cunnilingus. Just 16 years after saying that fellatio violated the law, the Court went the double-standard route and found that cunnilingus did not violate the law.

            1961     In enacting a comprehensive criminal code revision, Illinois becomes the first state in the nation to repeal its consensual sodomy law.

Bowers v. Hardwick Majority Opinion Footnote 7
In 1961, Illinois adopted the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code, which decriminalized adult, consensual, private, sexual conduct. Criminal Code of 1961, 11-2, 11-3, 1961 Ill. Laws, pp. 1985, 2006 (codified as amended at Ill. Rev. Stat., ch. 38, __ 11-2, 11-3 (1983) (repealed 1984)). See American Law Institute, Model Penal Code 213.2 (Proposed Official Draft 1962).


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