Oregon
History
1843 Early
Oregon settlers adopt a code of laws based on Iowa law, but it is unclear if
the Iowa code adopted is the 1838 code that had Michigan’s sodomy law, or
the 1843 code that didn’t have any sodomy law.
1894 A Gay
male couple is reported to police by a neighbor and one is sent to jail.
1913 Oregon
adopts a uniquely worded new sodomy law: “If any person shall commit sodomy
or the crime against nature, or any act or practice of sexual perversity,
either with mankind or beast, or sustain osculatory relations with the private
parts of any man, woman or child, or permit such relations to be sustained
with his or her private parts, such person shall upon conviction thereof, be
punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than one year nor more
than fifteen years.”
1913 Oregon
enacts a law requiring the sexual sterilization of “sexual perverts,” who
are defined as those “addicted” to sodomy. A group of prominent citizens
forces a referendum on the new law and voters repeal it by a 56%-44% margin.
Four years later, the Oregon legislature ignores this vote and reenacts the
law.
1955 Oregon
enacts the first law in the nation forbidding the kidnapping of a child for
purposes of engaging in sodomy.
1966 The
Oregon Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction based on a neighbor reporting
a Gay couple to police.
1988 The
Oregon Court of Appeals issues two decisions that all but obliterate the
state’s law against public indecency when it reverses convictions for
masturbating openly in public restrooms.
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