Current Version
| Region | United States |
| Issue | Homosexual activity |
| Status | Illegal (imprisonment as punishment) |
| Start Date | (unknown) |
| End Date | Jan 1, 1962 |
| Description | Before Illinois decriminalized consensual sodomy between adults per Model Penal Code recommendation, homosexuality was illegal in all of the United States due to laws prohibiting sodomy, and those prosecuted were sentenced to years in prison and often forced to perform labor. However, enforcement was uncommon until the mid-20th century, when the spike of McCarthyism led to an era of anti-homosexual persecution under the premise that queer people were communist sympathizers. |
| Sources | https://www.2civility.org/celebrating-illinois-lgbtq-history/ https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/we-colonials-sodomy-laws-america/ https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/404811in.html |
| Federal Law | Yes |
Revision History (1)
created by supaishibi
Helpful?
0 | Original entry | |
|---|---|
| Status | Illegal (imprisonment as punishment) |
| Federal Law | Yes |
| Start Date | (unknown) |
| End Date | Jan 1, 1962 |
| Description | Before Illinois decriminalized consensual sodomy between adults per Model Penal Code recommendation, homosexuality was illegal in all of the United States due to laws prohibiting sodomy, and those prosecuted were sentenced to years in prison and often forced to perform labor. However, enforcement was uncommon until the mid-20th century, when the spike of McCarthyism led to an era of anti-homosexual persecution under the premise that queer people were communist sympathizers. |
| Sources | https://www.2civility.org/celebrating-illinois-lgbtq-history/ https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/we-colonials-sodomy-laws-america/ https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/404811in.html |