Until the mid-20th Century American law punished homosexual conduct with death. This harkened back to 17th Century American law which was based on the belief that God had given man a NEW world and might take the gift back if they defiled it with such misconduct.

I am reminded by this of the Criminal Reform Act of 1879 which was given to Queen Victoria by Prime Minister Gladstone (whom she cordially disliked for his pomposity). She was supposed to just sign it pro forma but, being Victoria, she read it carefully. When she found that it criminalized lesbian acts she was outraged and refused to sign it declaring that men engaged in such filth but women never would and that the provision was an insult to womanhood. The provosion was removed and lesbian acts have never been a crime in Britain. (This is why Vita Sackville-West was never prosecited for her notorious affairs with Virginia Woolf et al.)