Homosexuality became partially legal in England and Wales on July 27, 1967, with the passage of the Sexual Offences Act 1967. This Act decriminalized consensual private sex between men over the age of 21. However, the law initially only applied to England and Wales; Scotland decriminalized homosexuality in 1980 and Northern Ireland did so in 1982. The reform was limited in scope at first — for example, it only covered private acts behind closed doors and did not apply to men in the armed forces or merchant navy. The age of consent was set at 21, higher than for heterosexual sex. Subsequent laws lowered the age of consent for gay men to 18 in 1994 and eventually equalized it to 16 in 2001. Other laws that criminalized gay sex offenses were repealed by 2004 in England and Wales, with full legal parity between same-sex and heterosexual relationships achieved through later laws such as the Civil Partnership Act 2004 and the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013.