In 1861, there were 8 recorded legal changes made affecting LGBT people. In the previous year, there were 4 changes made and 1 in the following year. A total of 19 legal changes were made in the 1860s.
- November 1Homosexual activity becomes illegal (up to life in prison as punishment).The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 lowered the maximum penalty to life imprisonment. Subsequent laws, such as The Labouchere Amendment (Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885) redefined the offence and allowed for other punishments, for example Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years hard labour in 1895, and in 1952 Alan Turing was chemically castrated. Female homosexuality and sexual acts were not addressed in the law, and therefore, they technically would have been legal, though the law often applied the law towards women.
- May 1Homosexual activity becomes illegal (imprisonment as punishment).Section 377 of Myanmar's Penal Code states: "Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal shall be punished with transportation for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine."
- (date unknown)Homosexual activity becomes illegal (other penalty).During the years of the political unification process of the Italian peninsula, the Sardinian Code of Criminal Procedure of 1859 was extended, in successive stages, to the various annexed territories. After the changes made by Minister Giuseppe Pisanelli, the definitive text was promulgated on November 26, 1865, becoming the first Italian Code of Criminal Procedure, effective from January 1, 1866. The proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy (March 18, 1861) did not produce an immediate recomposition of the criminal legislation: at the same time as the annexations, the Criminal Code of Savoy Piedmont had been extended to the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Among these changes was the application of Article 425, thus making homosexual relations illegal in Campania with exemplary punishments ranging from seven years to forced labor.
- January 1
- Homosexual activity becomes illegal (up to life in prison as punishment).The Offences Against the Persons Act, 1861 made “buggery” an offence punishable by penal servitude. Under the section “Unnatural Offences”, the Act read: “Whosoever shall be convicted of the abominable crime of buggery, committed either with mankind or with any animal shall be liable … to be kept in penal servitude for life.”
- Homosexual activity becomes illegal (imprisonment as punishment).Under colonial era statutes, homosexuality is illegal in Myanmar with up to 20 years in prison. Torture and vigilante executions are also common.
- (date unknown)
- Homosexual activity becomes male illegal, female legal.Male homosexuality is technically punishable with life imprisonment but is rarely enforced.