In the 1960s, attitudes toward sex became much more liberal in the United States. As this happened, some states began to repeal their sodomy laws. Illinois was the first state to do this, in 1963. In the 1960s and 1970s, seventeen other states repealed their sodomy laws. Another seven states changed their laws to say that sodomy between heterosexual couples was not a crime. These seven states kept laws that made sodomy between homosexual couples a misdemeanor.