Last edited: April 26, 2002

 

Calendar for October

October 1

1783 — The last execution for sodomy in France occurs—a friar is broken on the wheel.

1864 — Arkansas revises its sodomy law to mandate the death penalty for all persons.

1945 — The Colorado Supreme Court overturns a sodomy conviction. Two sailors were accused of robbing the man tried for sodomy with them, but were acquitted. Their robbery trial was mentioned in the other trial, and this was considered prejudicial.

1956 — The Second Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the deportation of a Gay alien for exposing himself in a restroom. The concurring opinion of Judge Jerome Frank limits his support for the deportation to the alien’s lying about a previous conviction. Frank embarks on a remarkable opinion raising questions about why homosexuality seems to bother people so much.

New laws take effect repealing consensual sodomy laws in Connecticut (1971) and Indiana (1977).

1973 — The Maine Supreme Court overturns a sodomy conviction because the penis had been touched, but not swallowed.

1981 — Under intense pressure from Moral Majority and other right-wing groups, the U.S. House of Representatives vetoes the new sex offenses law passed by the District of Columbia council, which includes repeal of the sodomy law. This is the first time that a District law that does not violate federal supremacy is vetoed.

1985 — An Indiana appellate court rules that an enclosed booth in a video arcade is a "public place" for purposes of sex.

October 2

1950 — A California appellate court rules that in a sodomy case, "consciousness of guilt" can be corroborative evidence. It does not explain what this means.

1973 — A Tennessee appellate court rules that cunnilingus is outlawed by the term "crime against nature."

1987 — The Minnesota Supreme Court, while conceding that there is an unwritten right to privacy under the state constitution, denies that it applies to sodomy for hire.

1990 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals rules that actual penetration of the vagina in an act of cunnilingus is not required to sustain a sodomy conviction.

October 3

1905 — The Wisconsin Supreme Court, in the first case of fellatio reported under the 1897 law, upholds the conviction and says, "We are unwilling to soil the pages of our reports with lengthened discussion of the loathsome subject.

1972 — The Wisconsin Supreme Court rules that the state’s sodomy law never meant to cover married couples solely because no married couples ever have been prosecuted under the law.

October 4

1864 — Arizona enacts its first sodomy law, going off the common-law crimes statute, and retains a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

October 5

1659 — Richard Berry is banished from Plymouth Colony, after his third arrest on various Gay-related sex charges.

1915 — The Montana Supreme Court rules that fellatio is a violation of the "crime against nature" law.

1964 — The U.S. District Court in North Carolina questions the soundness of the North Carolina sodomy law and says that the State Supreme Court was erroneous in deciding that fellatio was embraced in the term "crime against nature," but does not decide its constitutionality.

1976 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals upholds the District of Columbia sodomy law.

October 6

1943 — An Oklahoma appellate court rejects the contention of a man and woman that sodomy can be accomplished only between people of the same sex.

1967 — A New Mexico appellate court rules that cunnilingus is prohibited by the state’s sodomy law.

1969 — The Georgia Supreme Court rules that the testimony of police officers in sodomy cases does not need to be corroborated.

October 7

1940 — The Michigan Supreme Court overturns a trial court’s sentence of a Gay man to be held in confinement in a mental institution, after his imprisonment on a sodomy charge ends, "until this court shall judge you cease to be a menace to public safety." The Supreme Court points out that the judge was without authority so to act.

1964 — Presidential Assistant Walter Jenkins is arrested in a Washington YMCA for soliciting another man. Many supporters of Senator Goldwater try to make a big deal out of it, although Goldwater himself refuses to comment.

1969 — The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upholds the right of the state to proceed against sodomy arrestees by using indictment language different from the text of the sodomy law.

1975 — The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals rejects a challenge to a sodomy conviction based on the fact the women had been excluded systematically from the jury pool.

1976 — The Delaware Supreme Court rules that a man convicted of sodomy 27 years earlier and pardoned is not eligible to run for public office in the state.

October 8

1945 — The Michigan Supreme Court upholds a gross indecency conviction even though the complaining witness had not been cross-examined fully.

1956 — The Missouri Court of Appeals overturns a sodomy conviction because the prosecution raised the issue of the defendant’s sexual activity with other persons.

1956 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a consensual sodomy case from Pennsylvania.

1973 — The Arkansas Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the state’s sodomy law and upholds a sentence of eight years in prison for a private, consensual act.

October 9

1706 — English sailor James Ball is sentenced to death for sodomy with a ship boy.

1900 — The Hawaii Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction secured by a non-unanimous jury verdict.

1958 — The Hawaii Supreme Court rules that people of the opposite sex can be prosecuted for sodomy as well as those of the same sex.

1967 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a challenge to the Washington sodomy law, the first challenge based on privacy rights ever to reach it.

1990 — The Maryland Court of Appeals rules that the state’s sodomy and unnatural and perverted practices law are unconstitutional as applied to people of the opposite sex, but constitutional as applied to those of the same sex. The Court misconstrues case law history in the state to justify its ruling.

1998 — The South African Constitutional Court strikes down the country’s sodomy law under the new constitution.

October 10

1960 — The Virginia Supreme Court reverses the sodomy conviction of two men that was based on the confession of only one.

1960 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review the case of a Gay alien being deported after conviction of a minor misdemeanor solicitation.

1960 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a consensual sodomy case from Ohio.

1972 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a challenge to the Maryland sodomy law.

October 11

1915 — A Delaware appellate court rules that fellatio violates the state’s sodomy law.

1935 — A California appellate court violates both statutory and case law in the state by sustaining an oral copulation conviction secured by the admission of the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice.

1965 — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds an oral copulation conviction of two men in California for sex in a restroom stall that was enclosed and viewed from holes in the ceiling overhead.

1995 — A federal judge in Florida refuses to dismiss a suit brought by a man arrested in a restroom for sex. The court finds that the store may have acted in concert with police, thus creating a possible federal civil rights issue. The court also finds that Florida’s privacy provision in its constitution does not give right of action against private individuals.

October 12

1984 — Congress enacts a law repealing the District of Columbia sexual assault reform law of 1981, that had included a repeal of the District’s sodomy law.

1988 — The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals clarifies that only "consensual, heterosexual" activity is constitutionally protected, preventing a more liberal decision of two weeks earlier from becoming precedent.

October 13

1964 — At oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice Earl Warren demands that Mississippi strike from its brief an allegation that civil rights defendant Aaron Henry had been arrested for sex with another man. Warren claims that Mississippi is "poisoning the mind of the Court and the nation."

1982 — The Maryland Court of Appeals overturns the disorderly conduct conviction of a man who said "Fuck You" to a police officer. The Court noted that the arrest was illegal unless the police officer would testify that he was sexually aroused at the thought of being fucked by another man.

2000 — The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a trial court and upholds an Alabama law banning sex toys.

October 14

1927 — A California appellate court rules that corroborative evidence in crime against nature and oral copulation cases can be entirely circumstantial.

1941 — A newspaper reports that the Ohio Pardon and Parole Commission adopted a policy the previous year of requiring all males convicted of sex crimes to be sexually sterilized before release. The surgery performed leaves the men permanently impotent.

1986 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review the decision of the Oklahoma Court of Appeals that the state’s sodomy law can not be enforced constitutionally against people of the opposite sex.

1986 — The Georgia Court of Appeals upholds a sodomy conviction even though the defendant claimed that what he was charged with doing was "anatomically impossible." The court does not detail the act.

October 15

1918 — The Oregon Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction after the prosecutor made reference in the trial to the "past glories of Greece."

1963 — The Georgia Supreme Court overrules a 1917 precedent and holds that cunnilingus is not a violation of the sodomy law.

1975 — The North Carolina Court of Appeals rules that penetration is not necessary to complete an attempt to commit sodomy.

1998 — A federal judge strikes down Maryland’s "unnatural and perverted practices" law on broad privacy grounds and the state does not appeal.

October 16

1749 — North Carolina adopts the English sodomy law explicitly.

1943 — The Tennessee Supreme Court rules that fellatio is prohibited by the state’s "crime against nature" law, although the decision is neither published nor publicized.

1958 — The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a conviction for sodomy after the police entered without a warrant to search the defendant’s home.

October 17

1956 — An Illinois appellate court overturns the sodomy conviction of two men because no plea had been entered before the trial. The court refuses to publish the text of its opinion.

1958 — A New York court overturns the disorderly conduct charge against two men for fondling each other in a restroom, because they did not solicit.

October 18

1954 — David Trago, the elected sheriff of Jackson County, Ohio, is arrested on sodomy charges. He is a religious fundamentalist and the father of 13 children. The first trial ends in his acquittal, but later he is arrested again for attempting to have sex with a teenage male and is convicted and removed from office.

1981 — An Ohio appellate court sustains the libel verdict against Larry Hustler magazine for a satirical cartoon showing his rival, Penthouse publisher Robert Guccione, engaged in a "homosexual act."

1984 — The U.S. Virgin Islands repeals its sodomy law.

October 19

1964 — Judge Allen O’Connor of Connecticut is accused of sex with a young man. He resigns and is disbarred.

1994 — A federal judge in New York follows case law in the state and dismisses a public indecency charge against a man for sex in the bushes. He said it couldn’t be seen by others.

October 20

1896 — The Iowa Supreme Court permits divorce on cruelty grounds due to one spouse’s violating a sodomy statute.

1941 — South African police are called in to quiet a disturbance at a gold mine caused by the dismissal of 122 miners for refusing to stop dances in which boys are squeezed and kissed.

1941 — The Arkansas Supreme Court rejects the request of a sodomy defendant to be sent to a hospital to determine his mental status.

October 21

1893 — The New Orleans Mascot features a cover picture of their concept of two Lesbians with the heading: "Good God! The Crimes of Sodom and Gomorrah Discounted."

1985 — The Louisiana Supreme Court upholds that part of the crime against nature law that includes solicitation for money.

October 22

1840 — Maine makes its sodomy law gender-neutral.

1968 — The Michigan Court of Appeals upholds a "crime against nature" conviction even though prior acts with others were admitted into evidence.

1971 — The Nebraska Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction based entirely on circumstantial evidence.

October 23

1697 — Massachusetts' sodomy law refers to sodomy as "contrary to the very light of nature."

1762 — English sailors Martin Billin and James Bryan are acquitted of sodomy even though a witness testifies against them.

1880 — A medical journal publishes an article, "Notes upon Sodomy," which claims that men who engage in sodomy have a different type of penis from those who don’t.

1919 — The New Mexico Supreme Court rules that repeal of a statute in derogation of the common law revives the common-law provision. Since the state recognizes common-law crimes, this means that repeal of the sodomy law will not legalize consensual sodomy.

October 24

1901 — The Illinois Supreme Court refuses to overrule its 1897 decision that fellatio violates the state’s sodomy law.

1912 — The Arizona Supreme Court rules that fellatio is not outlawed by the term "crime against nature."

1921 — The Arkansas Supreme Court upholds the state’s sodomy against a vagueness challenge.

1945 — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rules that the sodomy law is not so broad as to cover kissing or shaking hands.

1956 — The Florida Supreme Court overturns a sodomy conviction because the defendant was found guilty by a judge before he had rested his case.

October 25

1917 — An Oklahoma appellate court rules that fellatio is a "crime against nature."

1966 — In Columbus, a dentist begins a 3½-year battle with the state of Ohio over consensual sodomy charges. After courts continue to dismiss the charges, the state finally gives up its prosecution efforts in 1970.

1973 — The California Supreme Court upholds the removal of Judge Leland Geiler for prodding a man with a dildo.

October 26

1885 — The first reported court case under the 1879 Pennsylvania fellatio statute results in a conviction being overturned and a new trial ordered to determine if the "victim" was actually an accomplice.

1949 — The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the District’s 1948 sodomy law’s nonspecific indictment provision.

1959 — Wisconsin permits anyone convicted of consensual sodomy to be denied a driver’s license, presumably so that they can’t cruise.

October 27

1910 — The Maine Supreme Court rules that there are no common-law crimes in the state.

1955 — A California appellate court upholds the oral copulation conviction of a man who tried to bribe the arresting police officer not to arrest him.

1959 — A New York appellate court overturns the disorderly conduct conviction of a man who thrust his erect penis at police, because there was no breach of the peace.

1969— The Michigan Court of Appeals upholds the sodomy conviction of a man even though the trial judge believed much of the testimony against him was untrue.

October 28

1824 — French historian Astolphe de Custine is beaten by soldiers he solicited. He reluctantly files charges against them.

1864 — A trial court in Utah dismisses the sodomy charge against a man because Utah has no sodomy law. Later that day, the man, Frederick Jones, is murdered (apparently by his partner’s father) but the murderer is released due to a lack of witnesses.

1867 — A Cleveland newspaper reports that a man who sexually assaulted a boy was provided only with "lodging for the night."

1971 — The Oregon Medical Board gives a Gay physician 10 years probation that includes never having sex and not treating any Gay or Lesbian patients. A court later overturns these restrictions.

October 29

1649 — In Plymouth, Richard Berry accuses Teage Joanes of having sexual relations with him. Berry admits the falseness of the charge and is flogged.

October 30

1861 — Nevada recognizes common-law crimes, making sodomy a crime with a compulsory sentence of life imprisonment.

1942 — The Nebraska Supreme Court rules that fellatio is outlawed by the state’s law prohibiting "carnal copulation in any opening of the body, except sexual parts."

1944 — The Arizona Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of a man over his claims of privacy rights, the first to be raised in the United States.

1968 — The North Carolina Supreme Court overturns a sodomy conviction because the indictment didn’t name the "victim."

October 31

1923 — The Indiana Supreme Court rules that cunnilingus of a female under the age of 21 is outlawed by the state’s sodomy law. The Court considers cunnilingus to be a form of masturbation as described in the law.

1955 — The South Carolina Supreme Court rules that cunnilingus does not violate the state’s "buggery" law.

1955 — The "Boys of Boise" affair begins. Starting with the arrest of four men for sexual relations with male teenagers who are prostitutes, it is blown into a situation in which Boise is called a mecca where Gay men can find boys. Begun by a group of right-wing politicians to shake the moderate political establishment, the issue is inflamed by the Idaho Daily Statesman and Time magazine. As a result of the hysteria, a city councilman is defeated for reelection and a West Point cadet from Idaho is dismissed. A 1965 investigation reveals the incident to be based on outright lies.

1956 — A California appellate court bans questions in an oral copulation case as to the defendant’s sexual orientation.

1974 — A federal court upholds the constitutionality of the Florida sodomy law.

1980 — A California appellate court upholds the conviction of a man for masturbating in the presence of an undercover police officer in a public restroom over the contention that, since the officer did not appear to be offended, he should be acquitted.


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