In 1909, Connecticut reduced the penalty for sodomy from life imprisonment to up to 30 years in prison. The law also continued to explicitly state that only men could be “victims”, keeping lesbianism legal.

California enacted a law in 1909 that provided for the sterilization of persons convicted two or more times of sexual offences if they showed evidence while in prison of being a "moral or sexual pervert". During this period, an estimated 20,000 people were sterilised, many for same-sex sexual intercourse. The law allowing sterilisation was not repealed until 1972 but they were rare after 1950.

Laws of Washington 1909 c 249 § 204 amended the state's sodomy law to include oral sex, added a clause to specifically criminalize voluntarily submitting to 'carnal knowledge', and lowered the penalty to "imprisonment in the state penitentiary for not more than ten years".