October 9th in Queer History: Cardinal John Henry Newman

Saint's day:


Blessed John Henry Newman

Cardinal  Newman was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on October 2011, which means that although not yet recognized by the Catholic Church as as a saint, he is in effect on the way to sainthood. "Blessed" John He is important in queer history for his notable devotion to his beloved friend, the fellow priest Aubrey St John, in whose grave he shared after death.


Sodomy in History, October 9


October 9

1706 — English sailor James Ball is sentenced to death for sodomy with a ship boy.

1900 — The Hawaii Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction secured by a non-unanimous jury verdict.

1958 — The Hawaii Supreme Court rules that people of the opposite sex can be prosecuted for sodomy as well as those of the same sex.

1967 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a challenge to the Washington sodomy law, the first challenge based on privacy rights ever to reach it.

1990 — The Maryland Court of Appeals rules that the state’s sodomy and unnatural and perverted practices law are unconstitutional as applied to people of the opposite sex, but constitutional as applied to those of the same sex. The Court misconstrues case law history in the state to justify its ruling.

1998 — The South African Constitutional Court strikes down the country’s sodomy law under the new constitution.