Atreyee Poddar
History is funny. What was once a crime is now just a regular Tuesday. Here are five things that used to land you in serious legal trouble before, and how the world eventually caught up.
Marrying someone of a different race
Believe it or not, interracial marriage was illegal in more than a dozen states throughout the twentieth century. That changed in 1967, when the Supreme Court issued the historic Loving v. Virginia decision, which invalidated anti-miscegenation laws statewide. The plaintiffs, Richard and Mildred Loving, put their names to a case that has become a symbol of the campaign for marriage equality.
Marrying someone of the same sex
For most of American history, same-sex couples were unable to marry legally anywhere in the country. That began to change state by state in the 2000s and 2010s, culminating in 2015, when Obergefell v. Hodges legalised same-sex marriage statewide. A decade later, it's difficult to envision a wedding registration without it.
Grabbing a beer after work
From 1920 to 1933, the U.S. ran a grand experiment called Prohibition, banning the sale, production, and transport of alcohol entirely. It gave us speakeasies, bootleggers, and a lot of very creative euphemisms — and it ended when the 21st Amendment repealed it, making your Friday happy hour legal again.
Being gay in the U.K.
Before the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 decriminalised private actions between consenting people over 21, homosexuality was illegal in both England and Wales. Although it was a gradual and unfinished beginning—the age of consent wasn't equalised until decades later—it signalled the beginnings of a significant legal change.
Lighting up recreationally
Not that long ago, recreational marijuana was illegal in all 50 U.S. states, full stop. That changed in 2012 when Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalise it for adult recreational use. Since then, a majority of U.S. states have followed suit — though it remains illegal at the federal level, creating one of the stranger legal grey zones in modern America.