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First Openly Gay Member of the European Parliament Took Office

Herman Verbeek of the Netherlands takes office as a member of the European Parliament, the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union.

Ministry of Interior Issued Statement on Crackdown on Homosexuality

The Ministry says its goal is to “preserve citizens’ ethics and defend our society against all irresponsible actions that mar our identity and culture.”

Sixty-Two Men Arrested for Homosexuality by Cairo Police

Police set up checkpoints on both sides of the Qasr al-Nil Bridge over the Nile, a popular cruising spot. The men are held for three days and are verbally abused by police. The men are charged with “habitual practice of debauchery” and face up to three years in prison.

Twenty-three of the "Cairo 52" Convicted

Fifty-two men are arrested on the Queen Boat, a floating gay nightclub on the Nile River, in May 2001. Every man pleads innocent. During their prison stay, the men are kept in two cells without beds for twenty-two hours per day and are subjected to beatings. Twenty-one are convicted of the “habitual practice of debauchery” and one was is found guilty of “contempt for religion.” The accused “ringleader” is convicted of both charges and receives the heaviest sentence, five years’ hard labor. Approximately one year later, the guilty and not-guilty verdicts are overturned and the men face a second trial, which lasts only fifteen minutes with the judge recusing himself. The third trial results in twenty-three men receiving jail sentences and twenty-nine are acquitted.

Iranian Homosexual Youths Executed

Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, are Iranian teenagers from the province of Khorasan who are publicly hanged in Edalat (Justice) Square in Mashhad, northeast Iran.

Letter from Frances Hodgkin to Dorothy Kate Richmond Begging Her to Join Her in Morocco

The female painters from New Zealand are travel partners for years and go on live together in a small apartment in Wellington. Hodgkins described Richmond as “the dearest woman with the most beautiful face and expression.”

Fifty-two men are arrested on a floating gay nightclub called the Queen Boat moored on the Nile in Cairo. Most of them are charged with “habitual debauchery” and “obscene behaviour.” Their trial lasts five months, during which time they are vilified in the Egyptian media and subjected to beatings in prison.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Claimed: "We Don't Have Homosexuals"

Ahmadinejad speaks at Columbia University in New York City. An aide later says that he was misquoted and was actually saying: “Compared to American society, we don’t have many homosexuals.”

Homosexual Relationships Banned in Algerian Penal Code

Article 338 of the Algerian Penal Code states: “Anyone guilty of a homosexual act is punishable with imprisonment of between two months and two years, and with a fine of 500 to 2000 Algerian Dinars. If one of the participants is below 18 years old, the punishment for the older person can be raised to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 dinars.”

Teens Arrested for Homosexuality in Azerbaijan

Hamzeh Chavi, 18, and Loghman Hamzehpour, 19, are arrested in Sardasht, in Iranian Azerbaijan, for homosexuality. They apparently confessed to the authorities that they were in a relationship and in love, prompting a court to charge them with “waging war against God” and sodomy. An online petition garnered over 20,000 signatures calling for their release.

Morocco Added Same-Sex Penalties to Penal Code

Article 489 states: “Any person who commits lewd or unnatural acts with an individual of the same sex shall be punished with a term of imprisonment of between six months and three years and a fine of 120 to 1,000 dirhams, unless the facts of the case constitute aggravating circumstances.”

Tourist Jailed for Homosexuality in Egypt

He is held for about fifteen days before being allowed to return to Israel.

"Emo Killings" Begin in Iraq

The series of killings targets young men who appear outside of the mainstream, especially gay and “emo” youth. Emo is a style often marked by fashions like skinny jeans. On this day, Saif Raad Asmar Abboudi, 20, is beaten to death with a brick.

Death of Monk Revealed to be Female

Marina the Monk was the daughter of a widower nobleman. He wanted to live in the Monastery of Qannoubine in the Kadisha Valley of Lebanon and Marina suggested that she would wear men’s clothes and go with him to live in the monastery. She cut her hair and changed her clothes and her father distributed his wealth to the poor, changed his daughter’s name to Marinus, and went to live in the monastery, sharing a cell with her. Marina died at the age of forty, and when the monks changed her clothes for burial, they discovered that she was female.

Croatian Parliament Approved Anti-Discrimination Law

The new law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in all areas.

First Pride Parade in Croatia

It takes place in the capital city of Zagreb and goes on to be an annual event.

Same-Sex Marriages Legalized in Denmark

It becomes the eleventh country in the world to recognize and legalize same-sex marriage.

First Two Openly Gay Members of Danish Parliament Took Office

Torben Lund (the first gay man) and Yvonne Herløv Andersen (the first lesbian) had both come out recently while serving as MPs.

"The Little Mermaid" Is Published

Rictor Norton theorizes that “The Little Mermaid” was written as a love letter by Hans Christian Andersen to Edvard Collin. This is based on a letter Andersen wrote to Collin, upon hearing of Collin’s engagement to a young woman, around the same time that “The Little Mermaid” was written. Andersen wrote, ”I languish for you as for a pretty Calabrian wench [. . .] my sentiments for you are those of a woman. The femininity of my nature and our friendship must remain a mystery.”

Danish Parliament Passed Bill Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage

Denmark had been the first country in the world to grant legal recognition to same-sex unions, in the form of “registered partnerships,” in 1989.

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Danish
Folketinget vedtager en lov, der tillader ægteskab mellem to personer af samme køn.
I 1989 var Danmark det første land i verden, der gav homoseksuelle mulighed for at indgÃ¥ i et registreret partnerskab.Â


Linda Berkowitz

Denmark Allowed Same-Sex Couples to Apply Jointly for Adoption

Denmark had been the first country in the world to grant legal recognition to same-sex unions, in the form of “registered partnerships,” in 1989. However, it is not until 1999 that a same-sex partner could apply to adopt his or her registered partner’s child. On May 4, 2010, the parliament votes to permit same-sex couples to apply jointly to adopt a child not biologically theirs.

Marriage Equality Legislation Proposed in Danish Parliament

The bill goes on to be passed on June 7, 2012, and goes into effect on June 15. The new gender-neutral marriage law grants rights to civil marriage as well as marriage in the Church of Denmark.

First Same-Sex Civil Union

Axel Axgil and Eigil Axgil are the first same-sex couple to enter into a registered partnership anywhere in the world following Denmark’s legalization of same-sex partnership registration in 1989.

Danish Parliament Allowed Lesbians to Access Artificial Insemination

The vote repeals a 1997 law that had prevented lesbians from accessing the medical procedure.

Navy Chief of Detectives Executed for Sodomy in AmsterdamÂ

Laurens Hospuijn is hanged and thrown into the water with a 100-pound weight.

The States of Holland Issued an Edict Justifying Arrests and Capital Punishment of Sodomites

There was no uniform criminal code in the early Netherlands (the seven United Provinces), so sodomy was illegal in some places and unmentioned in others. On this day the most populous province issued the following public statement, to be posted as a placard in every town: “some terrible atrocities have been committed for some time past in our dear states of Holland and West Friesland, offending Nature herself, and that many of our subjects have turned so far away from any fear of God as audaciously to commit crimes which should never be heard of, on account of which God Almighty had in earlier times overturned, destroyed, and laid waste Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Thirteen Resistance Activists Shot by the Nazis

Three of the resistance members were gay: artist Willem Arondeus, tailor Sjoerd Bakker, and writer Johan Brouwer. The last wish of the leader, Arondeus, is that he be given a pink shirt. He declares: “Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.”

Three Men Executed for Sodomy and Their Ashes Dumped in the Ocean

Leendert de Haas (60-year-old candlemaker), Casper Schroder (distiller), and Huivert van Borselen (“gentleman’s servant”) are hanged and burnt in Rotterdam. Their ashes are carried by cart out of the city, taken to a ship, and once at sea, thrown overboard.

First International Lesbian Conference in Amsterdam

Women from 17 countries attend the conference of the International Lesbian Information Secretariat, held over six days at a youth hostel in central Amsterdam.

First Legal Same-Sex Weddings in the World

The weddings take place in Amsterdam City Hall, after the Netherlands becomes the first country to legalize same-sex marriage.

Group of Resistance Activists Burned Nazi-Held Building

They are led by Willem Arondeus, an artist who had a long-term same-sex relationship. Dressed as German soldiers, the group infiltrates the citizen registration building and destroys it. This meant that fake identification cards could no longer be proven false. The activists escape (though they are later arrested) and the attack inspired similar ones.

Mass Execution of Sodomites in Zuidhorn

Following convictions of sodomy, approximately twenty-two men, ranging in age from 14 to 48, are strangled, and then burned. At least two are scorched alive before being strangled.

Opening Ceremony of the 1928 Olympics

French athlete Violette Morris had been barred from competing since the French Women’s Athletic Federation would not renew her license. In its reasoning, the agency cited her lesbianism, due to the fact that her female lover Raoul Paoli had made their affair public. Paoli had recently left Morris after the athlete had initially decided to undergo an elective mastectomy in order to fit into racecars more easily.

Two Soldiers Executed for Sodomy

Jan Westhoff and Steven Klok are hanged and then buried under the gallows.

Five Men Executed for Sodomy in Amsterdam

Pieter Marteyn, Janes Sohn, and Johannes Keep (a decorator) are strangled and burnt. Maurits van Eeden (house servant) and Cornelis Boes (18-year-old “Keep’s servant”) are drowned in a barrel of water.

Five Men Executed for Sodomy in The Hague

Five men are hanged and their bodies with fifty-pound weights afterwards thrown into the sea at Scheveningen.

Fifteen Resistance Activists Arrested

Fifteen men, including three gay men, had attacked a Nazi-held building on March 27. An unknown betrayer causes to their arrest. The leader of the group, Willem Arondeus, declares, “Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.”

Mädchen in Uniform Released

The German film portrays a sensitive girl sent to an all-girls boarding school, where she develops a romantic attachment to a teacher. It is one of the earliest narrative films to explicitly portray homosexuality.

Gay Rights Activist Wrote of Abandoning Campaign

Nazi raids and censorship are too much for Adolf Brand, one of the leading voices for decriminalization of male homosexuality and the acceptance of male bisexuality. He writes to the Sexological Society in London: “I have been plundered of everything. I have nothing left to sell and am financially ruined. I no longer know from what I and mine can continue to live. For my whole life’s work is now destroyed. And most of my followers don’t have even the courage to write me a letter.” Brand is one of the last to continue the fight while others flee into exile. He dies during Allied bombing in 1945.

First Issue of Der Eigene

Der Eigene (Self-Ownership) is an openly homosexual publication that appears from 1896 to 1932. Adolf Brand writes in this first issue: “This journal is dedicated to eigen people, such people as are proud of their Eigenheit and wish to maintain it at any price.”

Austria Legalizes Civil Unions

The Bundesrat’s approval of the bill means the law will take effect on Jan. 1.

Expansion of Nazi Homosexual Acts Laws

The Nazis expand the language of Paragraph 175 to cover virtually any contact between men. Arrests under the expanded law skyrocket from under 1,000 in 1932 to over 8,500 in 1938.

Mayor of Hamburg Dismissed Vice-Mayor

Ole von Beust dismisses Ronald Schill, causing a scandal. In a press conference minutes after he learned the news, Schill makes claims about “homosexual relationships” at an apartment “in an infamous hustler district” and says “certain things happened that let one infer the occurrence of love acts” between Beust and a man Beust had appointed minister of justice. Beust denied the relationship and Schill later says “I have nothing against homosexuals.”

Bartholomé Tecia Tried for Sodomy

He is found guilty and sentenced to death by drowning in the Rhone River.

Law Recognizing Same-Sex Registered Partnerships Went into Effect

The bill passes a public referendum with 68.8% of the vote in Liechtenstein.

Institute of Sex Research in Germany Attacked

The attack is organized by Nazi Youth of the Deutsche Studentenschaft.

Term "Homosexuals" Written for the First Time

Károly Mária Kertbeny uses the word “Homosexualisten” in a letter to Karl Heinrich Ulrichs. He derived it from Greek homos (“the same”) and the Latin root sexualis.

Germany's Sexuality Laws Reformed

The infamous Paragraph 175 stays on the books, but is significantly amended. Its name changes from “Crimes and misdemeanors against morality” to “Offenses against sexual self-determination.” Sexual acts are no longer referred to as “lewdness” and the only crime left in Paragraph 175 is sex with a minor. The age of consent for homosexual acts is lowered to 18, though the age of consent is 14 for heterosexual acts.

Burning of Library of the Institute of Sex Research

Germany’s Institute of Sex Research’s library and archives are publicly hauled out and burned in the streets of the Opernplatz. This Institute was one of the first of its kind in the world. The Nazi held many other book burnings throughout Germany on this day.

First Gay Rights Group Founded

Magnus Hirschfeld founds the Scientific Humanitarian Committee (Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee, WhK) in Berlin to organize for homosexual rights.

First Openly Gay Member of Austrian Parliament Took Office

Ulrike Lunacek, who lives openly as a lesbian, becomes a Member of Parliament of the National Council of Austria. She serves for the Austrian Green Party.

First Same-Sex Couples Marry in Austria

Four couples in Vienna are recognized under the new civil unions bill, but do not have a right to adopt children or use artificial insemination.

Edmund Heines Ordered Nazi Men to Protest Death Penalty

Five Nazis are convicted of political murder on August 22, and on this day a Nazi Leader, Edmund Heines, organizes a protest outside of the courthouse where the sentence to death by firing squad is issued. Less than two years later, Heines is discovered in naked in bed with another man by Hitler himself and ordered to be shot.

Film Different from the Others Released

Anders als die Andern (the film's German title) is one of the first sympathetic portrayals of homosexuals in the cinema. Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld was one of the writers, actors, and funders of the film, using his Institute for Sexual Science to pay for part of the production.

Opening Ceremony of the 1936 Olympics

French athlete Violette Morris is personally invited to attend by Adolf Hitler. Morris had been banned from the 1928 Olympics for her lesbianism. She was recruited by the Nazi SS in 1935 and killed as a traitor by the French Resistance in 1944.

Ernst Röhm Executed on Night of Long Knives

Believing the gay head of the SA is a threat, Hitler orders Ernst Röhm to be executed. Following the execution, the Nazis step up their persecution of gay men in order to distance themselves from Röhm.

First Openly Gay Member Elected to the Bundestag

Herbert Rusche, a member of the Green Party, serves for two years in the German Parliament. He had co-founded the first gay organization in Heidelberg in 1972, Homo Heidelbergensis.

First Openly Gay Member of the German Government Took Office

Guido Westerwelle becomes Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister to Angela Merkel.

Out Gay Person Spoke Publicly for Gay Rights for the First Time

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs pleads at the Congress of German Jurists in Munich for a resolution urging the repeal of anti-homosexual laws. He was not allowed to finish after he was shouted down.

Courts Confirm Karl M. Baer's Male Identity

Baer transitioned to his male identity and began living as a man in 1905. He underwent multistage rudimentary sex-change surgery in October 1906. He was released from the hospital in December 1906, with a medical certificate of his new gender.

Hans Hermann von Katte Executed in Prussia

Frederick the Great (Frederick II of Prussia) is very close with, and thought to be lovers with, Katte. They plan to flee Prussia together, and are discovered. The court sentences Katte to life in prison, but refused to judge the prince. Frederick’s father believes this too lenient and orders Katte executed and Frederick imprisoned. Frederick is awakened at 5 a.m. and told to view the execution from his prison window. He calls out: “My dear Katte, a thousand pardons.” Katte calls back: “My prince, there is nothing to apologize for” just before he is beheaded.

Heinz Neddermeyer Expelled from Luxembourg

He is considered to be the first great love of writer Christopher Isherwood. The couple lived together in Berlin until May 1933 when, due to the rise of Hitler and the Nazis, they were forced to flee the country. They traveled Europe and North Africa until this day when Heinz was expelled from Luxembourg and forced to return to Germany. The next day he was arrested by the Gestapo and sentenced to three and half years of forced labor and military service.

Homosexuality Removed from List of Mental Illnesses by WHO

This day has become the annual International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia because of this decision.

Homosexual-Specific Holocaust Memorial Plaque Unveiled at Concentration Camp

The plaque is located at the site of the former Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp. The plaque reads, “In Memory of the Victims of Nazi Barbarity, Deported Because of Their Homosexuality.”

Cabaret Singer Claire Waldoff Dies

Waldorff lived openly as a lesbian in Germany her entire life. Shortly after her death, her partner, Olga von Roeder, said “life for me has no content anymore. ... We were joined by forty years of our being together just so intimately with each other than ever that this gap could be filled in for me. Actually we just lived one for the other. ... I would be happy if my ashes already could rest with Claire’s ashes in peace.” They share their final resting place in Stuttgart.

Crown Prince Frederick, later Frederick II, Caught Trying to Escape from Prussia

Frederick II of Prussia (Fredrick the Great) is thought to have been in a relationship with Hans Hermann von Katte. When a letter reveals Katte as an accomplice in the escape, both men are arrested and imprisoned for treason.

Leonard Bernstein Conducts Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in East Berlin

Bernstein, who was probably bisexual, conducts Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in East Berlin’s Schauspielhaus as part of a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. He had conducted the work in West Berlin the previous day. The concert is broadcast live in more than 20 countries to an estimated audience of 100 million.

Nazi Leaders Advised Moving Homosexual Prisoners

Top-level members of the Third Reich advise the Head of Police to transport homosexuals to the concentration camp Fuhlsbuttel. This camp has recently established homosexuals as a category of prisoner.

Openly Gay Man Sworn In as Prime Minister

Xavier Bettel is the first openly gay leader of Luxembourg, the second openly gay male country leader, and third openly gay or lesbian country leader. Since his deputy Etienne Schneider is also openly gay, they become the first all-gay leadership of a country.

Paragraph 175 is added to the German Criminal Code. It makes homosexual acts between males a crime, and in early revisions the provision also criminalized bestiality. The Nazis used Paragraph 175 to prosecute homosexuals extensively.

Paragraph 175 Repealed

The section of the German Penal Code outlawed sexual acts between men. It was used heavily by the Nazis to persecute gay and bisexual men. It was amended several times, broadening and narrowing its scope, until repeal.

Gay Man Became Mayor of Hamburg

Ole von Beust takes office on this day and serves until 2010.

Therese Giehse and John Hampson Entered into a Marriage of Convenience

The German actress, who had been involved with Erika Mann in 1933, and the homosexual British writer married on this day so that Giehse could obtain a British passport and escape Nazi Germany.

Death of Recipient of First Sex-Reassignment Surgery

Lili Elbe is possibly intersex and presents as male for much of her life before transitioning to female. She marries Gerda Gottlieb in 1904 in Denmark, a marriage that the King of Denmark invalidates in 1930. She undergoes five surgeries to remove male sex organs and transplant female sex organs. She dies of post-surgical complications three months after her final surgery; her body rejects her new uterus.

Transgender Europe Council Formed

Founded in Vienna during the first European Transgender Council, this NGO works “to support or work for the rights of transgender/transsexual/gender variant people.” It also runs the Trans Murder Monitoring project, which records and reports those killed each year as a result of transphobia.

Premiere of Cabaret Die Pfeffermühle

Erika Mann and Therese Giehse (lovers at the time) wrote and directed the anti-Facist cabaret. When the Nazis take power on Jan. 30, the production is unable to continue, but it re-opens in Zurich and becomes a rallying point for exiles.

Two Men Burned at the Stake for Homosexual Acts Together

Richard Puller von Hohenberg is burned at the stake along with his servant, Anton Matzler, in Zurich. Prior to his death, Wirich von Berstett, a noble, apprehends one of von Hohenberg’s servants, who confesses to having been courted by his master. No formal trial follows this arrest, though von Hohenberg is brought in for questioning. Next, von Hohenberg attempts to conceal his relationships with men and drowns a servant who witnesses him with another man. As von Hohenberg is a noble, he is not sentenced to death for sodomy, and instead is required to give up his acquired wealth. Eventually, under torture, after evading several attempts to be caught for sodomy, von Hohenberg confesses to homosexual acts. He refuses to repeat this confession while tied to the stake. He claims that the torture is the reason he admitted to performing homosexual acts.

Israeli Supreme Court Recognized International Same-Sex Unions

The ruling allows marriages from abroad to be formally registered by the Israeli Interior Ministry.

High Court Allows Same-Sex Parental Rights without Adoption Process

Israel’s Supreme Court decides that the spouse of a surrogate is eligible to become a parent with a court order only, avoiding a lengthy adoption process.

Israeli Supreme Court Allows Lesbian Couple Adoptions

The Supreme Court rules that each member of a lesbian couple may legally adopt the other’s children.

Court Forces Jerusalem City Hall to Fund LGBT Parade

Israel’s Supreme Court accepts the appeal of Jerusalem Open House, an LGBT organization, regarding the city hall’s refusal to participate in funding of the organization while other organizations regarding non-gays were funded. The court finds that City Hall deliberately set anti-gay standards in town funding.

Israeli Court Rules in Favor of Male Same-Sex-Couple Adoption

The Tel Aviv family court rules that former Knesset member Uzi Even and his partner, Amit Kama, can legally adopt their 30-year-old foster son, Yossi.

Trembling Before G-d Released in Israel

Trembling Before G-d, an American-made documentary film about gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews trying to reconcile their sexuality with their faith, is released in Israel. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in the United States earlier in the year.

Approval of Ordination of LGBTQ Rabbis by Israel's Conservative Movement

The Israeli Conservative movement now joins the Reform movement in agreeing to admit LGBTQ students to a rabbinic training program. This decision has been debated for many years.

Shooting at Gay and Lesbian Association Center

A masked gunman kills two in a gay youth center in the center of Tel Aviv: 17-year-old Liz Trobishi and 26-year-old youth guide Nir Katz. At least fifteen others were injured. The next day 20,000 people hold a spontaneous rally against homophobia in Tel Aviv. President Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livniamong were among the speakers. The killer, Hagai Felician, was indicted in 2013, saying he did it as revenge for the assault of his younger brother by the founder of the youth club and gay activist Shaul Gonen.

Israeli Couple Became First To Be Jointly Recognized As Biological Fathers

Yuval Topper-Erez, a transman, and his husband Matan become the first same-sex couple in Israel to be jointly recognized as biological fathers of the same child. Previously, one of the parents was legally required to adopt the child.

Israel Registers First Gay Couple

Following a Supreme Court ruling, Avi and Binyamin Rose register as a couple in Jerusalem.

Brokeback Mountain Premiere at Venice Film Festival

The film, directed by Ang Lee, depicts the love story between two men. It is one of the first major motion pictures with worldwide distribution to focus on same-sex love as the main storyline.

Benvenuto Cellini Accused of Sodomy With his Apprentice

Fernando di Giovanni di Montepulciano accuses his mentor of having sodomized him many times. This was not the first accusation against Cellini and the penalty was a 50-golden-scudi fine and four years of prison, remitted to four years of house arrest after intercession by the Medicis.

Benvenuto Cellini Charged with Sodomy

It is charged that “For about five years he had held as his apprentice, Fernando di Giovanni da Montepulciano, with whom he had carnal intercourse very many times and committed the crime of sodomy, sleeping in the same bed with him as if he were a wife.” Cellini receives a sentence of four years in prison.

Benvenuto Cellini Sentenced for Sodomy With a Boy

The famous artist is sentenced to pay 12 staia of flour for relations with Domenico di ser Giuliano da Ripa. This is one of at least four times he is convicted of sodomy with both men and women.

Girolamo Savonarola Executed in Florence

Savonarola is executed by hanging at the Piazza della Signoria.

Jacopo Bonfadio Beheaded

Several humanists were tried for sodomy in this time, but Bonfadio is one of few to be executed—most likely because he had earned the ire of several wealthy Genoese families by publishing accounts about them. It appears that he was once accused of sleeping with a male student and his enemies used this incident later to have him executed.

Elagabalus Is Declared 25th Emperor of Roman Empire

It appears Elagabalus married and divorced five women and one man during his eighteen-year life. The man was an athlete named Zoticus, and they wed in a public ceremony in Rome. According to Cassius Dio, despite these marriages, his most stable relationship was with his chariot driver, a blond slave named Hierocles, whom he referred to as his husband. Cassius Dio also reported that Elagabalus would paint his eyes, epilate his hair and wear wigs before prostituting himself in taverns, brothels, and even in the imperial palace. Herodian commented that Elagabalus enhanced his natural good looks by the regular application of cosmetics. He was described as having been “delighted to be called the mistress, the wife, the queen of Hierocles” and was reported to have offered vast sums of money to any physician who could equip him with female genitalia.

Theodosian Code Passes

It includes: “When a man marries and is about to offer himself to men in womanly fashion, what does he wish, when sex has lost all its significance; when the crime is one which it is not profitable to know; when Venus is changed to another form; when love is sought and not found? We order the statutes to arise, the laws to be armed with an avenging sword, that those infamous persons who are now, or who hereafter may be, guilty may be subjected to exquisite punishment.”

Ferdinand I of Bulgaria Married Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma

The marriage of convenience produces four children. Ferdinand is considered to be bisexual.

Giovanni di Giovanni Killed for Sodomy

The 15-year-old is publicly castrated and killed by a red-hot iron in his anus for admitting to having sex with multiple men. He is one of the youngest victims of the campaign against sodomy in Italy.

Pope Paul III writes a letter to his son, Duke Pier Luigi Farnese, scolding him in it for having male lovers with him on an official mission to the court of the Emperor. The Pope orders his son to send the lovers away.

Emperor Justinian I Completed the Codex

Justinian’s Codex is a re-writing of Roman Law, making it distinctly Christian. It now states that all same-sex acts are contrary to nature and punishable by death.