Anal intercourse, both male-male and male-female, had been illegal and punishable by death since the Buggery Act 1533. In 1861, parliament passed the Offences against the Person Act 1861, which abolished the death penalty for anal intercourse. The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 extended buggery laws to outlaw any kind of sexual activity between males. It is common folklore that an amendment that would have criminalised lesbian acts was rejected by Queen Victoria because she refused to believe that some women did such things; but it is likelier that those presenting the amendment excluded it (as did the House of Lords 40 years later) on the assumption that it would give women ideas.