The early United States inherited sodomy laws which constitutionally outlawed a variety of sexual acts deemed illegal, illicit, unlawful, unnatural or immoral from the colonial-era based laws of the United Kingdom in the 17th century.
Through the mid to late 20th century, the gradual decriminalization of consensual sexual acts led to the elimination of anti-sodomy laws in most U. During this time, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of its sodomy laws in Bowers v. Hardwick in In , the Supreme Court reversed that decision with Lawrence v. During the colonial era of American history , the various European nations which established colonies in the Americas brought their pre-existing sodomy laws which included capital punishment with them.
The establishment of the United States after their victory in the Revolutionary War did not bring about many changes in these laws.
Beginning in the 19th century, the various state legislatures passed legislation which ended the status of capital punishment being used for those who were convicted under sodomy laws. South Carolina was the last state, in , to repeal the death penalty for sodomy law violations. The number of times the death penalty was carried out under sodomy laws is unclear. Records show there were at least two executions, and a number of convictions with vague labels, such as "crimes against nature".
According to one source, sodomy statutes in colonial America in the 17th century were largely unenforced as male-male eroticism did not threaten the social structure, challenge the gendered division of labor, or undermine the patriarchal ownership of wealth. Justice Anthony Kennedy authoring the majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas stated that American laws targeting same-sex couples did not develop until the last third of the 20th century and that early sodomy laws seemed not to be enforced for private consensual acts.
