Jersey

Jersey parishes

Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands. The Bailiwick of Jersey is a UK Crown Dependency with its own government and laws.

LGBT history

Anal intercourse (referred to as sodomy, or in legal French terms the crime of sodomie) was completely illegal in Jersey for both men and women until 1990 although the age of consent for homosexual acts other than sodomy was the same as for heterosexual acts. The Sexual Offences (Jersey) law 1990 decriminlaised sodomy between consenting males with an age of consent of 21 as in the UK. The sodomy age of consent was reduced to 18 under the Sexual Offences (Jersey) Law 1995. The Sexual Offences (Jersey) Law 2007 set the age of consent at 16 for all sexual conduct, regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender.

In 1923 Louis Delanoe, a Jersey resident, killed his partner and then committed suicide.

The lesbian artists Claude Cahun and Suzanne Malherbe lived in Jersey from 1937 onwards, becoming active in the resistance during the Nazi occupation.

Same-sex marriage

In July 2014 moves to introduce same-sex marriage were put on hold, leading to protests at the island's first Pride rally.

Same-sex marriage finally became legal on 1 July 2018; the law also provides for Humanist marriages.