LGBT individuals and communities became more visible in the state starting in the s, coinciding with the gay liberation movement. The state capital, Boston , was home to multiple LGBT organizations and publications beginning at this time.
The state's first known Pride march was held in Boston in In , Massachusetts became the first US state to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the decision in Goodridge v. In politics, Massachusetts boasts a number of LGBT firsts, including the first openly LGBT politician elected to a state legislature Elaine Noble , , [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] first out congressperson Gerry Studds , , [ 6 ] first congressperson to voluntarily come out Barney Frank , , [ 7 ] first transgender person elected to a state legislature Althea Garrison , , [ 8 ] [ 9 ] first openly lesbian African-American mayor in the country E.
In October , Reverend John Cotton submitted a legal code for Massachusetts Bay , which included the death penalty as a crime for sodomy , adultery, incest, and other offenses. In November , Plymouth listed sodomy as an offense "punishable by death" [ 15 ] and quoted verbatim from Leviticus Roberts was later charged, in of "disorderly living".
The code also prohibited sodomy, [ 20 ] [ 21 ] with discussions between colony leaders about the definition of "sodomy" and "sodomitical acts". A terminological update of a Massachusetts law, in , changed sodomy to a crime called "buggery", which also included bestiality , defining it as "detestable and abominable" and "contrary to the very Light of Nature", and remained a capital crime. Scholars disagreed on the reasons and effectiveness for these laws.
(mh=_eBd6ZBZH0IaiYor)0.jpg "Whores in Haverhill")
Scholar Robert F. Oaks argued that changes to sodomy laws, which implemented "strict legal procedures", reduced the number of convictions and arrests for "homosexual activity". Talley, a public health scholar, concluded that in British North America, including Massachusetts, statutes against sodomy were "largely unenforced", with ambivalence toward "same-sex eroticism", and stated that such behavior was common [ 30 ] while historian Edmond S.
