Illinois
- Statute: Repealed 1962 (Effective date, legislation passed in 1961.)
History
1827 Illinois
is the first state to prohibit voting and jury service by anyone convicted of
sodomy.
1897 The
Illinois Supreme Court becomes the first in the nation to uphold a sodomy
conviction for an act of fellatio. The Court had to use an obscure law that
denied civil rights to anyone convicted of “sodomy or other crime against
nature.” This, the Court said, made it clear that there were many different
crimes against nature.
1913 The
Illinois Supreme Court becomes the first in the nation to hear a sodomy
conviction appeal for an act of cunnilingus. Just 16 years after saying that
fellatio violated the law, the Court went the double-standard route and found
that cunnilingus did not violate the law.
1961 In
enacting a comprehensive criminal code revision, Illinois becomes the first
state in the nation to repeal its consensual sodomy law.
Bowers
v. Hardwick Majority Opinion Footnote 7
In 1961, Illinois adopted the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code, which
decriminalized adult, consensual, private, sexual conduct. Criminal Code of 1961, 11-2,
11-3, 1961 Ill. Laws, pp. 1985, 2006 (codified as amended at Ill. Rev. Stat., ch. 38, __
11-2, 11-3 (1983) (repealed 1984)). See American Law Institute, Model Penal Code 213.2
(Proposed Official Draft 1962).
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