Isle of Man

Coat of arms of the Isle of Man

location of the Isle of Man

The Isle of Man (Manx: Ellan Vannin) is an island in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland. It is self-governing, with its own parliament (Tynwald) and is not part of the United Kingdom or the European Union; as a crown dependency it has the King or Queen of the UK as its head of state, and the UK is responsible for its defence and foreign relations.

The island has its own police force, the Isle of Man Constabulary.

LGBT History

Sexual relations between men were illegal until 1992. As late as 1991, "twelve men were found guilty of buggery and gross indecency in a group trial. Five of the men received suspended sentences of one-year prison terms and the remining seven were sentenced to two hundred hours of community service"

The Sexual Offences Act 1992 decriminalised gay sex between men with an age of consent of 21, but also introduced the equivalent of Section 28. The age was lowered to 18 by the Criminal Justice Act 2001, and to 16 by the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2006. All of these changes were several years later than in the UK.

The Civil Partnership Act 2011 introduced civil partnerships in a form very similar to the UK.