The act made sodomy punishable by hanging. This included sodomy by priest and monks – both of whom were immune from punishment by death for most other crimes, even murder. The act originally did not define ‘buggery’ as homosexual, but as an unnatural sect act against the will of God. The courts later defined buggery as involving anal penetration (by a man with a man or woman) and bestiality (by a man or woman with an animal).
An acte for the punyshement of the vice of buggerye. Cap. vi.
For as moche as there is not yet sufficient & condigne punishment appointed & limitted by the due course of the lawes of this realme for the detestable & abominable vice of buggeri committed with mankind or beest.
Although the Act was passed at a time when Cromwell’s power was increasing, it is a tragic irony that the first occasion that someone was executed under its terms was on the very occasion of Cromwell’s own beheading (for treason). On 29 June 1540, the first man to be executed under the Buggery Act (among other allegations) was Walter Hungerford, an associate of Cromwell.
When Henry VIII’s Catholic daughter, Queen Mary I acceded to the throne in 1553, she repealed the act. But after her death, her Protestant sister Queen Elizabeth I returned the law.
Sodomy remained punishable by death until 1861, but the last execution took place in 1835. The act was replaced by the Offences against the Person Act 1828.
During the Victorian period, further discrimanatory laws were introduced with the outlawing of all other sexual acts between men in 1885 (Criminal Law Amendment Act). It was under Section 11 of this law that the mathematician and Bletchley codebreaker, Alan Turing OBE FRS (1912-1954) was prosecuted in 1952.
In 1967, the Sexual Offences Act partly decriminalised homosexuality, repealing the maximum penalty of life imprisonment for anal sex and ended the blanket outlawing of all homosexual acts. However, the criminalisation of homosexuality in the UK did not end until 2013.
Sources
- LGBT+ History Month https://lgbtplushistorymonth.co.uk/
- Peter Tatchell Foundation https://www.petertatchellfoundation.org/1967-the-myth-of-gay-decriminalisation/
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