1942: The German SS informs concentration camp commandants that they are free to sterilize any of the prisoners under their control. The directive gives official approval to the practice, already instituted in some camps, of castrating males suspected of sexual attraction to other men.

1637: The Plymouth, Massachusetts court finds John Allexander and Thomas Roberts guilty of “often spending their seed one upon the other.”  The Plymouth crime of “sodomy” was not mentioned in connection with the case, for “sodomy,” then, required “penetration,” not mere emission, even if this emission was mutual, and “often.”  The class difference of the … Read More