This is a list of important events relating to the LGBT community from 1701 to 1800.
Events
1700s
1704
12 December – The
Province of New York adopted a statute issuing a general pardon for almost all pending prosecutions, including those for same-sex intercourse. They were abandoned as of that date.[1]
8 July – The
Province of New Jersey adopted a statute imposing a duty on those bringing into the colony people convicted of various crimes, including sodomites.[8]
1740s
1746
18 August –
Frederick the Great of the
Kingdom of Prussia suspended the death penalty for sodomy, recommending "Festungarbeit" (military labor) as an alternative punishment, as well as a visit from a preacher, to "make them understand the greatness and abomination of the vice they have committed".[9] (Frederick was himself both
gay and
agnostic.)
June – The
Vermont Republic adopted a statute that enacted only
English common law, but also all statutes passed by
English Parliament before 1 October 1760, thus criminalizing anal sex and bestiality in the Vermont Republic.[12]
8 February – The
State of New Hampshire enacted a statute that changed the language of the law to read that "if any Man shall carnally lie with a Man as Man carnally lieth with a Woman." Thus it was made clear that only sodomy between two men was a crime.[5]
25 September and 6 October – The
Kingdom of France adopts the
Penal Code of 1791, legalizing same-sex sexual intercourse and zoophilia, becoming the first country to do so.[13]
The
Erie Triangle is sold to the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, thus criminalizing same-sex intercourse with a maximum penalty of forfeiture of estate and a maximum of 10 years in prison.
The
Kingdom of Prussia officially reduces the punishment for sodomy from death by burning to imprisonment for a year or more, whipping, and banishment.[15] The death penalty for sodomy had previously been suspended by royal decree in 1746.
17 June – The
Anglo-Corsican Kingdom is established, thus extending the
Buggery Act 1533 to the territory, enacting the death penalty for anal intercourse and zoophilia.
10 February – The
Commonwealth of Kentucky adopts a statute reducing the penalty for same-sex intercourse from the death penalty to 2–5 years in the jail and penitentiary house.[18]
25 January – The
Commonwealth of Virginia reduces the penalty for free peoples for committing
buggery to 1–10 years in prison, but did not reduce the death penalty for
slaves.[14]