Quote from article below:
"Whosoever shall be guilty of Rape, Polygamy, or Sodomy with man or woman shall be punished, if a man, by castration, if a woman, by cutting thro' the cartilage of her nose a hole of one half diameter at the least." - Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson, A Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishments
1778Papers 2:492--504
Whereas it frequently happens that wicked and dissolute men resigning themselves to the dominion of inordinate passions, commit violations on the lives, liberties and property of others, and, the secure enjoyment of these having principally induced men to enter into society, government would be defective in it's principal purpose were it not to restrain such criminal acts, by inflicting due punishments on those who perpetrate them; but it appears at the same time equally deducible from the purposes of society that a member thereof, committing an inferior injury, does not wholy forfiet the protection of his fellow citizens, but, after suffering a punishment in proportion to his offence is entitled to their protection from all greater pain, so that it becomes a duty in the legislature to arrange in a proper scale the crimes which it may be necessary for them to repress, and to adjust thereto a corresponding gradation of punishments.
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendVIIIs10.html
Bill 64
An article courtesy of the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia. Click for more.
"Whosoever shall be guilty of Rape, Polygamy, or Sodomy with man or woman shall be punished, if a man, by castration, if a woman, by cutting thro' the cartilage of her nose a hole of one half diameter at the least."
The above is a section of Bill 64, "A Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishment in Cases Heretofore Capital," one of 126 bills submitted to the Virginia Assembly in 1779 by the Committee of Revisors. This committee, headed by Thomas Jefferson, worked for two years revising the colonial laws, as Virginia began making the legal transition from colony to commonwealth.1
Read more at: https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/bill-64
Do You Take This Man?
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For Don Roos, on Oct. 23, 2011, our 19th anniversary.
In 1779 Thomas Jefferson proposed a law to the Virginia State Assembly that would mandate castration for gay men and mutilation of nose cartilage for gay women. That’s right: nose cartilage. And Jefferson was considered a liberal! Was he trying to make the punishments “fit the crime”? At least with castration, they’d be targeting the general vicinity of an area that could be made a total bummer by those small-minded, bigoted sadists. But what’s up with the lesbian punishment? I’m not versed enough in the sexual practices of lesbians to speak about the use of the nose during sexual encounters. But it would seem to me that they could still pleasure one another, even with a busted nose. It’s no wonder there are some isolated reports of fights for homosexual rights as early as the 19th century in Europe. But it wasn’t until the early 1950s that small organizations were formed in America for gay men and women, mainly as a social outlet. But these gays were in no way “activists.”
Read more at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-bucatinsky/do-you-take-this-man_b_1026401.html
It was a different era, maybe this is how they dealt with the matter back then. I think it confused Jefferson. This legislation never passed if it even made it to committee. Research for history buffs. I was not aware of this until about 8 years ago.
Huffpo article reflects how some mainstream or lamestream media have covered this.
