• The history of homosexuality can be recorded back to as early as 12,000 BC, with artifacts and artwork suggesting an appreciation for homoeroticism, including a graphically carved double dildo, found in Gorge d’Enfer, France.
• An ancient Egyptian tomb dating back to the 24th or 25th century BC was built for two male lovers, likely the first record of a homosexual relationship.
• In 54 AD emperor Nero marries two men in a legal ceremony and accords one of the men the same honours, status and privileges as a Caesar’s wife.
• In 342, the criminalization of homosexuality begins with the sons of Constantine the First outlawing gay prostitutionand gay marriage, eventually outlawing all homosexuality.
• In 589, medieval Spain outlaws homosexuality, but in the rest of Europe homosexuality remains completely legal.
• Between 1250 and 1300, homosexuality passes from being completely legal in most of Europe to incurring the death penalty in all but a few countries.
• In 1533, King Henry VIII introduces the Sodomy Laws to England which criminalizes masturbation, anal and oral sex regardless of gender.
• In 1779, Thomas Jefferson prepares a draft for the Virginia Criminal Statute that called for castration as the punishment for sodomy.
• Between 1791- 1858, many countries start to decriminalize homosexuality, including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Tuscany, the Netherlands, Bavaria, Brazil and the Ottoman Empire.
• In 1871, the penalty in England for sodomy is reduced from hanging to imprisonment only in 1861.
• In 1880, Japan becomes the first Asian country to decriminalize homosexuality.
• In 1886, Queen Victoria outlaws sexual relations between two men (but not between women).
• In 1920, the word “gay” is used for the first time in reference to homosexuals.
• In 1937, the pink triangle is used to identify gay men in the Nazi concentration camps. When the allied forces liberate the camps in 1945, those men interned for homosexuality are not freed, but instead forced to serve out the full term of their sentences.
• In 1969, the Stonewall Riots in New York City serve as a catalyst for the gay liberation movement.
• On July 20, 2005, Canada becomes the fourth country in the world – and the first country outside Europe – to legalize same-sex marriage with the enactment of the Civil Marriage Act.
• On June 26, 2015, the US becomes the 18th country to recognize same-sex marriage nationwide, following a ruling by the US Supreme Court.
• Today more than 80 countries around the world still criminalize homosexuality, while eight countries have the death penalty for anyone caught or suspected of being queer (Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Nigeria, Mauritania, Sudan, Iran, Somalia).
