Minnesota became the first U. In , the state legalized same-sex marriage , after a bill allowing such marriages was passed by the Minnesota Legislature and subsequently signed into law by Governor Mark Dayton.
This followed a ballot measure in which voters rejected constitutionally banning same-sex marriage. In July , an executive order was signed and implemented banning conversion therapy state-wide. Some cities within Minnesota had previously banned conversion therapy by local ordinances. Before the arrival of the Europeans, there were no known legal or social punishments for engaging in homosexual activity. Several Native American tribes recognized individuals who would act, behave and live as the opposite biological sex, nowadays also called " two-spirit ".
The Dakota people refer to male-bodied individuals who act as female as winkta. They are ikwekaazo literally "men who chose to function as women" among the Ojibwe.
Likewise, female-bodied individuals who act and live as males are ininiikaazo literally "women who choose to function as men". In , the Minnesota Territory was given Wisconsin's laws, including a ban on heterosexual and homosexual sodomy , which was defined by the common law. When Minnesota drafted its own criminal code in , it kept this prohibition. In , the penalty for sodomy was increased to 20 years' imprisonment, and in , the Minnesota Legislature expanded the definition of sodomy to include fellatio oral sex.
In , a wave of child molestation cases in Saint Paul led to the enactment of a psychopathic offender law, which included LGBTQ people alongside rapists and child molesters. Though justified by the need to protect children and others from sexual abuse, those convicted of homosexuality constituted the major part of those imprisoned under it.
