A perseguição legal à homossexualidade na Península Ibérica: séculos XIX e XX

Abstract

The legal framework that underpins the persecution of homosexuality in Portugal and in the Spanish State appears before the beginning of the Iberian dictatorships. In Portugal, for example, the I Republic creates legislation against “those who practice vices against nature”, based on the Lei da Mendicidade (1912). In the Spanish case, the Penal Code of 1870 introduces, for the first time, the categories of sexual crimes, which are used for the detention of homosexuals until de arrival of democracy. Although homo/lesbophobia pre-dates fascist regimes, it is in these types of regimes that the persecution of homosexuality becomes a key element. These and other laws, to be applied later by the Estado Novo and Francoism, lead to homosexual being observed as a crime. The comparisons made intend to reinforce the need to continue to rescue the LGBTI memory, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula. This article aims to analyse and compare the legislation applied to homosexuals in both countries, from 19th century, with the emergence of the first Penal Codes until the decriminalization of homosexuality, which took place in the mid-1980s.