Who knew? According to a gay history calendar, on July 1st, 1975, the State of California decriminalized private, consensual sexual activity between homosexuals. (I'm thinking that what it was on the books was that they repealed the sodomy laws. I could be wrong.)According to Wikipedia:
...Up until 2003, 14 states in the United States had laws prohibiting consensual homosexual sex. Some such state sodomy laws carried punishments of thousands of dollars, and some carried up to life sentences! With their decision, the Supreme Court invalidated all such remaining laws in the US... "Sodomy laws can be found around the world. Today, consensual homosexual acts between adults are illegal in about 70 out of the 195 countries of the world;[3] in 40 of these, only male-male sex is outlawed.[4]"The California decision in the mid-seventies was by our legislature. Can you imagine the campaigning or reaction to that one? Geesh, and we thought the legalization of marriage was causing a stir...
If there are Valley's Other Fruit readers who were around then, please share what you remember about that occasion. Momentous? Uproar? Quiet? Undercover?
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██ Laws repealed or struck down before 1970.
██ Laws repealed or struck down from 1970-1989.
██ Laws repealed or struck down from 1989-2002.
██ Laws struck down by the US Supreme Court in 2003.
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Within 5 years of the decision, I remembered my male friend commenting about "what the heck" the court's, state's, or government's business it was what he & his wife did in the bedroom (and how would they know).
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