LGBT rights in Cyprus not recognised or mentioned in the law. With independence from Britain in 1960, Cyprus retained British colonial law on the island almost in its entirety, with the relevant parts of the "Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885" becoming articles 171 to 174 of Chapter 154 of the Cypriot Criminal Code. The articles were first challenged in 1993, when Alexandros Modinos, a Cypriot architect and gay rights activist won a legal court case against the Government of Cyprus, known as "Modinos v. Cyprus", at the European Court of Human Rights. The Court ruled that Section 171 of the Criminal Code of Cyprus
Rhode Island General Assembly from Great Britain. On May 4, 1776, five months before the Continental Congress formally adopted the United States Declaration of Independence, Rhode Island became the first colony of what would soon be the future United States to legally leave the British Empire. William Ellery and the first chancellor of Brown University Stephen Hopkins were signatories to the Declaration of Independence for Rhode Island. A decisive march ending with the defeat of British forces commanded by Charles Cornwallis began in Newport, Rhode Island under the command of French forces sent by King Louis XVI and led by the Comte de Rochambeau.