Timeline of UK LGBT Legislation
Timeline of UK LGBT Legislation
1500
1533 The Buggery Act 1533, formally An Acte for the punysshement of the vice of Buggerie (25 Hen. 8 c. 6), made certain homosexual activity punishable by death in England. The Act was passed during the reign of Henry VIII, as part of a process of bringing activiites that had previously been covered by church law under the normal criminal law. It defined "buggery" as as "an unnatural sexual act against the will of God and man" but this was later clarified as referring to anal intercourse.
1600
1700
1800
The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 raised the age of consent for girls to 16,and also introduced the offence of gross indecency between males, effectively making all kinds of gay male sex illegal, irrespective of age.
1900
1967 The Sexual Offences Act 1967 legalised sex between men in private, with an age of consent of 21. It did not apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland, where gay sex was still illegal.
1980 Equivalent to The Sexual Offences Act 1967 happened in Scotland with the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980, and in Northern Ireland two years later through the Homosexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 1982.
1994 The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 reduced the age of consent for sex between men to 18, and legalised anal sex between men and women, also with an age of consent of 18.
2000
2000 The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000 introduced a common age of consent of 16 for both males and females, and for both heterosexual and homosexual acts.
