dec 27, 1860 - Offences Against the Person Act 1861
Description:
Section 61 – BuggeryThis section abolished the nominal death penalty for buggery, and provided instead that a person convicted of this was liable to be kept in penal servitude for life or for any term not less than ten years.
A total of 8921 men had been prosecuted since 1806 for sodomy with 404 sentenced to death and 56 executed. Homosexuality remained illegal until 1967 in England and Wales and 1980 in Scotland.
Matt Cook, A Gay History of Britain, p. 109
Added to timeline:
Date:
dec 27, 1860
Now
~ 164 years ago