It is not that long ago it was a crime.
From the second half of the 13th century, death was the punishment for male homosexuality in most of Europe.
During
The Holocaust about 50,000 people were sentenced because of their homosexuality and several thousands of them died in concentration camps. Outside of the gay community, this persecution of homosexuals is usually ignored (see
History of Gays during the Holocaust for more information). Conditions for gay men in the camps was especially rough; they faced not only persecution from German soldiers, but also other prisoners, and many gay men were reported to die of beatings. German soldiers were also known to use the pink triangles that the men were forced to wear for
target practice with their weapons
the punishment for homosexuality in all American colonies was death.
The penalty for attempted sodomy (both homosexuality and bestiality) was prison, whipping, banishment, or fines. Thomas Jefferson suggested castration as the punishment for sodomy, rape, and polygamy in a proposed revision of the Virginia criminal code near the end of 18th Century
first state to repeal the death penalty for “sodomy” in 1786 and within a generation all the other colonies followed suit (except North and South Carolina that repealed after the Civil War).
The first prosecution for consensual sex between people of the same gender was not until 1880. This can be attributed to the purity movement which also explains the sharp increase in arrests for prostitution and homosexuality. In response to the visibility of alternative genders, gender bending, and homosexuality, a host of laws against vagrancy, public indecency, disorderly conduct, and indecent exposure were introduced across America as discourse for easier persecution. “Sodomy” laws also shifted in many states over the beginning of the 20th Century to specifically address homosexuality (many States during the 20th Century made anal intercourse between men and women legal). In some states, these laws would last until the Federal government repealed them in 2004 with the Lawrence decision.
By the 1930s both
fruit and
fruitcake terms as well as numerous other words are seen as not only negative but also to mean male homosexual,.although probably not universally. LGBT people were widely diagnosed as diseased with the potential for being cured, thus were regularly "treated" with
castration,
lobotomies,pudic nerve surgery, and electroshock treatment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_history#18th_and_19th_century
These states did not decriminalize homosexuality until 2003
Alabama,
Florida,
Idaho,
Kansas,
Louisiana,
Mississippi,
Missouri,
North Carolina,
Oklahoma,
Puerto Rico,
South Carolina,
Texas,
Utah,
Virginia
　
