Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons have been present throughout the history of the US state of Massachusetts. A 2018 report by Boston Indicators and The Fenway Institute found that Massachusetts had the second-largest LGBT population in the country by percentage, behind Vermont, at roughly 5% of the state population.
LGBT individuals and communities became more visible in the state starting in the 1970s, 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 1971. Same-sex sexual activity was illegal in the state until 1974.
In 2004, Massachusetts became the first US state to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, and the sixth jurisdiction worldwide, after the Netherlands, Belgium, Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec.
In politics, Massachusetts boasts a number of LGBT firsts, including the first openly LGBT politician elected to a state legislature (Elaine Noble, 1975), first out congressperson (Gerry Studds, 1983), first congressperson to voluntarily come out (Barney Frank, 1987), first transgender person elected to a state legislature (Althea Garrison, 1992), first openly lesbian African-American mayor in the country (E. Denise Simmons, 2008), first openly LGBT state attorney general (Maura Healey, 2014), and first openly lesbian governor (Maura Healey, 2022).
Legal history of same-sex activity 1636–1692 In October 1636, 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. The code was not adopted. In November 1636, Plymouth listed sodomy as an offense "punishable by death" and quoted verbatim from Leviticus 20:13.Goodbeer, "The Cry of Sodom", 266 In August 1637, John Allexander and Thomas Roberts were found guilty by a Plymouth court of sodomy. Roberts was later charged, in 1637 of "disorderly living". The law only applied to men.Oaks, "Things Fearful to Name", 268-9 In 1641, Nathaniel Ward's code was enacted instead. The code also prohibited sodomy, with discussions between colony leaders about the definition of "sodomy" and "sodomitical acts".Goodbeer, "The Cry of Sodom", 269–270Oaks, "Things Fearful to Name", 274
A terminological update of a 1672 Massachusetts law, in 1697, 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. Years prior, Reverend Samuel Danforth of Duxbury anonymously published a sermon on "sins of Sodom" after the execution of Benjamin Goad for bestiality led to "criticism in Massachusetts of the late 1600s". The law remained in effect until 1785.
Scholars disagreed on the reasons and effectiveness for these laws. 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". He also stated that decline in religious fervor, inability of earlier efforts to stop "illicit sex", and secularization of the state, resulted in fewer prosecutions for "variant sexual activity".Oaks, "Things Fearful to Name", 278 Colin L. 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 while historian Edmond S. Morgan stated that 17th century New England records give the impression of "fairly common" illicit sexual intercourse. He added that offenders were not treated as severely as codes of law would "lead one to believe". Historian Roger Thompson noted three convictions for sodomy in Plymouth between 1636 and 1649, and said that cases in Massachusetts during the 17th Century were "rare". He disagreed with Morgan and Oaks, arguing that homosexual behavior was infrequent and "hardly ever occurred". Scholar John M. Murrin stated that treatment of men or boys "accused of sodomy" in New England mirrored practices in other parts of British North America. He also argued that bestiality was an "abomination and obsession" of those in 17th century New England.
1780–1915 The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 included a provision making sodomy a crime, based on the Buggery Act 1533 in the United Kingdom.
In 1805, the death penalty for sodomy was removed, with the punishment changing to one year of solitary confinement and ten years of hard labor. Massachusetts law was revised again in 1835 to eliminate solitary confinement as a punishment, but increasing the sentence for sodomy to twenty years of hard labor.
In the case of Commonwealth v. Snow, in January 1873, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled against James A. Snow, who was indicted on charges of sodomy against young boys. In 1879, a Massachusetts law was passed which prohibited the sale of any "instrument or other article intended to be used for self abuse" which was intended at masturbation but also included sex toys. The Massachusetts legislature enacted a law in 1887 which prohibited "unnatural and lascivious acts" and aimed at oral sex, with the first case under this law decided in 1894. In the case, Commonwealth v. Dill, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court stated that the indictment that a defendant committed "a certain unnatural and lascivious act" was sufficient. In another case under the 1887 law, Commonwealth v. Delano, in 1908, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court stated that "any and all unnatural and lascivious acts" were outlawed. In 1915, the Massachusetts legislature passed a law which prohibited using any saloon, café, or restaurant "for the purpose of immoral solicitation or immoral bargaining". In 1918, the legislature revised the 1887 law, lowering the penalty of those convicted from 3 years to years.
1920–1992 In January 1921, in the case of Commonwealth v. Porter, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld a conviction of an individual for "maintaining a nuisance" where "indecent and unnatural acts" took place. The court also concluded that they saw "no error of law in the ruling" or in conduct of the trial which resulted in the conviction. The state enacted a law in 1923 which permitted a trial judge to bar the public from trials in which those under age 17 are victims of any crime "involving sex". The age was changed to 18 in 1931. Massachusetts statues, from 1939 to 1945, required notice to police "data about any person convicted of sodomy" about to be released from a prison, and filing of mental health report on those "arrested for sodomy" before bail. In 1954 and 1959, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of the existing sodomy laws. In the case of Jaquith v. Commonwealth in 1954, the court stated that the existing sodomy statute was constitutional and the court permitted sodomy convictions "based largely on circumstantial evidence" in the 1959 case of Commonwealth v. Marshall
In 1972, a proposed criminal code for Massachusetts was published, which would have repealed "crime against nature" and "unnatural and lascivious acts" laws, but the code was never enacted. In the same year, in Commonwealth v. Balthazar, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the statute which prohibited "any unnatural and lascivious act with another person" was inapplicable to "private, consensual conduct of adults". In the cases of Commonwealth v. Scagliotti (1977) and Commonwealth v. Ferguson (1981), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court overturned convictions for "an unnatural and lascivious act". The court, in 1980, in Commonwealth v. Sefranka, ruled against police actions which attempted to entrap gay men. In the 1984 case of Commonwealth v. Bloom, the Massachusetts Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of Frederick Bloom for "engaging in consensual sexual relations" in a public area. The court argued there wasn't a "reasonable expectation" of privacy for Bloom. In 1992, the police raided a private home in Boston where a police officer saw 160 men "engaging in an evening of mutual masturbation", resulting in a police raid in which people were arrested on charges of obscenity and "operating a house of ill fame."
1992–present
In the case of Doe v. Attorney General (1997), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a man convicted of engaging in "unnatural acts" on an undercover officer could not suffer legal consequences without due process. The case was remanded to the court in 1999, which concluded that a "individualized hearing is required". In 2001, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), a group of lawyers who "represent gay and lesbian interests in court", sued the Massachusetts Attorney General and two District Attorneys, challenging both statutes. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court dismissed the case on February 21, 2002, because the plaintiffs did not present an instance of prosecution and therefore failed to meet the Court's "actual controversy requirement". The Court noted that the defendants' stipulation "that their offices will not prosecute anyone under the challenged laws absent probable cause to believe that the prohibited conduct occurred either in public or without consent" satisfied the Court's holding in Commonwealth v. Balthazar with respect to §35. It also extended its holding that "consensual conduct in private between adults is not prohibited" to apply to §34.
Pre–17th century Although historians attest that Native American tribes in southern New England had more liberal attitudes towards sex and sexual relationships than the European colonists did, their attitudes towards homosexuality and gender nonconformity are uncertain. This is due to the lack of European records, as many of the indigenous communities in the area had been devastated by disease prior to the arrival of Europeans there, and the communities remaining there had been largely driven out, killed, or assimilated by 1700.
1620–1899 1620–1699 The Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies were founded by the Pilgrims and Puritans, who were known for their adherence to strict social and gender hierarchies. Religious beliefs restrained sexual relations to only be within marriage and for procreative purposes. Laws were passed to require unmarried members of the colonies to live within established households, in an effort to ensure that sexual behavior was controlled. Furthermore, sexual behavior outside of these limits, including sodomy, was seen as a political crime, in that it might bring God's wrath down on the state itself.
Records of trials for sodomy or same-sex indecency were fairly rare, and executions for the act even more so; only two executions for sodomy were reported in the entirety of New England. This may have partially been due to the requirement of having two witnesses to convict the crime. However, many court documents do document trials for 'lewd' activities, which would not have been punishable by death. In Plymouth County, the first trial for same-sex indecency between two men was held in 1636. In 1642, a Plymouth court charged Edward Michell and Edward Preston with "lewd & sodomitical practices" but were whipped rather than executed,Goodbeer, "The Cry of Sodom", 271Oaks, "Things Fearful to Name", 270-1 as was Elizabeth Johnson for a same crime, along with a fine.Goodbeer, "The Cry of Sodom", 268 The only known description of two women engaging in sex from this period comes from 1649, when Plymouth residents Sarah White Norman and Mary Hammon were charged with "lewd behavior…upon a bed".