New York Law Makes it a Crime to “Loiter” and Solicit “A Crime Against Nature.”
New York State on this day passed a law making it a crime to loiter in “any public place soliciting men for the purpose of committing a crime against nature or any other lewdness.” The law applied only to men.
As a colony, New York had a series of any sodomy or homosexual acts as early as 1638. The first known trial for sodomy occurred in 1646.
The loitering statute was finally declared unconstitutional by the New York Court of Appeals on February 23, 1983. The New York sodomy law was declared unconstitutional by the New York Court of Appeals on December 18, 1980.
On June 26, 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court declared anti-sodomy laws unconstitutional. The decision also invalidated similar laws in 13 states. In Lawrence v. Texas the Court held that
“The case does involve two adults who, with full and mutual consent from each other, engaged in sexual practices common to a homosexual lifestyle. The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives. The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime.”
Learn about the full history of New York’s sodomy laws here.
Read: Dale Carpenter, Flagrant Conduct: The Story of Lawrence v. Texas: How a Bedroom Arrest Decriminalized Gay Americans (2012)
Learn more about the sodomy cases: David A. J. Richards, The Sodomy Cases (2009)