Homosexuality

Since its coining, the term homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings. In the original sense, it refers to a sexual orientation characterized by aesthetic attraction, romantic love, and sexual desire exclusively for members of the same sex or gender identity. It can also refer to the manifestation of that orientation in the identity of an individual, which may or may not be at odds with that person's sexual behavior. Finally, it can refer to sexual relations with another of the same sex regardless of one's sexual orientation, self-identification or gender identity.

History

Main articles: History of sexuality & History of the Gay Community

Related Topics:
History of sexuality - History of the Gay Community

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Sexual customs vary greatly over time, and those shifts, as well as the orientation of particular pre-modern figures are the subject of ongoing study. However, modern Western gay culture as it is currently understood is largely a product of 19th century psychology as well as the years of post-Stonewall gay liberation. It is generally not applicable as a standard when investigating same-gender sex and people's views in past ages.

Related Topics:
19th century - Psychology - Stonewall - Gay liberation

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It may be accepted, for example, that the sex lives of historical figures such as Alexander the Great, Hadrian, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Plato, Christopher Marlowe (who coined the term 'quean') and William Shakespeare included or were centred upon relationships with people of their own gender. Terms such as "gay" or "bisexual" might be applied to them in that sense. But many regard this as risking the anachronistic introduction of a modern social construction of sexuality sub-culture that is foreign to their times. For example, their societies might have focused upon the sexual role one took in these encounters, namely active, passive, both, or neither, as a key social marker. This particular system of designation is currently the norm in many areas of Latin America.

Related Topics:
Alexander the Great - Hadrian - Leonardo da Vinci - Michelangelo - Plato - Christopher Marlowe - William Shakespeare - Latin America

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While some premodern societies did not employ categories fully comparable to the modern homosexual or heterosexual dichotomy, this does not demonstrate that the polarity is not applicable to those societies. A common thread of constructionist argument is that no one in antiquity or the Middle Ages experienced homosexuality as an exclusive, permanent or defining mode of sexuality. John Boswell has criticized this argument by citing ancient Greek writings by Plato which he says indicate knowledge of exclusive homosexuality.

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Michel Foucault and his followers have argued that the homosexual is a modern invention, a mental construct of the last hundred years. While true of homosexuality as a scientific or psychiatric category, there are examples from earlier ages of those viewing their sexuality as a part of a human identity and not merely a sex act. One cited example is the 16th century Italian artist Gianantonio Bazzi who adopted the nickname "Sodoma", viewed by Louis Crompton as something analogous to the modern gay identity.

Related Topics:
Michel Foucault - 16th century

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It could be noted, on the other hand, that when evidence that a particular historical figure's sexuality pointed exclusively toward an attraction to people of an opposite gender describing them as having a heterosexual orientation rarely evokes such controversy. This tendency among Western historians, to view heterosexuality as an acceptable norm while regarding arguments that a particular historical figure may have had been gay controversial or requiring more evidence than a claim of opposite-sex attraction might warrant, is often attributed to homophobia on the part of historians and is referred to within queer studies as heteronormativity.

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In Ancient Times

While homosexuality has been part of almost all societies since the dawn of time, the forms in which it has been found vary widely. Cultural anthropologists who have studied homosexuality distinguish three main types of homosexual practice: gender-structured, age-structured and egalitarian homosexuality.

Related Topics:
Homosexuality - Cultural anthropologist

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In gender-structured homosexuality, each partner plays a different gender role. Examples of gender-structured homosexuality include the butch/femme distinction found among some modern Western lesbians (although butch/femme is in decline).

Related Topics:
Gender role - Butch/femme - Lesbian

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In age-structured homosexuality, the partners are of different ages. Examples of this include pederasty among the ancient Greek elite (sex between adolescents and older men was socially respectable, but sex between grown men much less so) and traditional Melanesian insemination rituals (where adolescents would fellate older males as part of the process of initiation).

Related Topics:
Pederasty - Ancient Greek - Melanesia - Fellate

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Both gender-structured and age-structured homosexuality frequently involve one partner adopting a 'passive' and the other an 'active' role. Among men, being the passive partner often means being the receptacle of semen, i.e. performing fellatio and being the receptive partner in anal sex. This may mean an emphasis on the sexual pleasure of the active partner, although dogmatism about this is unwise. (In gender-structured female homosexuality in Thailand, active partners (toms) emphasise the sexual pleasure of the passive partner (dee), and often refuse to allow their dee to pleasure them.)

Related Topics:
Semen - Anal sex - Thailand

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In egalitarian homosexuality, the partners are of equal age (or age is of no relevance in the partnership structure) and both play the same socially-accepted sex role as heterosexuals of their own sex. Egalitarian homosexuality is increasingly dominating the Western world, replacing age- and gender-structured homosexuality within it; and from the West egalitarian homosexuality is spreading to non-Western societies as well, although they maintain a much higher incidence of non-egalitarian than the West does.

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Some anthropologists have argued for the existence of a fourth type of homosexuality, class-structured homosexuality; but many scholars believe that this has no independent existence from the other three types.

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Africa

Though denied or ignored by early explorers, homosexual expression in native Africa was widespread and common, and took a variety of forms. Representative examples:

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Anthropologists Murray and Roscoe report that women in Lesotho traditionally have engaged in socially sanctioned and celebrated "long term, loving and erotic relationships" named motsoalle.

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E. E. Evans-Pritchard reported that Azande warriors (in the northern Congo) routinely married youths who functioned as temporary wives. The practice had died out in the early 20th century but was recounted to him by the elders.

Related Topics:
Azande - Congo

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An academic paper by Stephen O. Murray examines the history of descriptions of "Homosexuality in traditional Sub-Saharan Africa".

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Americas

In North American Native society, the most common form of same-sex sexuality seems to center around the figure of the two-spirit individual. Such persons seem to have been recognized by the majority of tribes, each of which had its particular term for the role. Typically the two-spirit individual was recognized early in life, was given a choice by the parents to follow the path, and if the child accepted the role then it was raised in the appropriate manner, learning the customs of the gender it had chosen. Two-spirit individuals were commonly shamans and were revered as having powers beyond those of ordinary shamans. Their sexual life would be with the ordinary tribe members of the opposite gender. Male two-spirit people were prized as wives because of their greater strength and ability to work. See Two-spirit

Related Topics:
Two-spirit - Shamans

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East Asia

In Asia same-sex love has been a central feature of everyday life since the dawn of history. Early western travelers were taken aback by its widespread acceptance and open display.

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In China, known as the pleasures of the bitten peach, the cut sleeve, or the southern custom, same-sex relations have been recorded since at least 600 BCE. These euphemistic terms were used to describe behaviors, but not identities. The relationships were marked by differences in age and social position. However, the instances of same-sex affection and sexual interactions described in the Hong Lou Meng (Dream of the Red Chamber, or Story of the Stone) seem as familiar to observers in the present as do equivalent stories of romances between heterosexuals during the same period. For more information see Homosexuality in China.

Related Topics:
China - 600 BCE - Hong Lou Meng - Homosexuality in China

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In Japan, the practice, variously known as shudo or nanshoku, terms influenced by Chinese literature, has been documented for over one thousand years and was an integral part of Buddhist monastic life and the samurai tradition. This same-sex love culture gave rise to strong traditions of painting and literature documenting and celebrating such relationships. For more information see Homosexuality in Japan.

Related Topics:
Japan - Shudo - Nanshoku - Buddhist - Samurai - Painting - Homosexuality in Japan

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Similarly, Thailand had no concept of homosexuality until the late 20th century. Kathoey or ladyboys have been a feature of Thai society for many centuries. They were men who dressed as women. They were generally accepted by society without much question, although a family was often disappointed if one of their sons became a Kathoey. The teachings of Buddhism, dominant in Thai society was accepting of a third gender designation.

Related Topics:
Thailand - Kathoey

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Europe

The earliest western documents (in the form of literary works, art objects, as well as mythographic materials) concerning same-sex relationships are derived from Ancient Greece. They depict a world in which relationships with women and relationships with youths were the essential foundation of a normal man's love life. Same-sex relationships were a social institution variously constructed over time and from one city to another. (See Pederasty) The practice, a system of relationships between an adult male and an adolescent coming of age, was often valued for its pedagogic benefits and as a means of population control, and occasionally blamed for causing disorder. Plato praised its benefits in his early writings, but in his late works proposed its prohibition, laying out a strategy which uncannily predicts the path by which same-sex love was eventually driven underground. (See Philosophy of pederasty)

Related Topics:
Mythographic materials - Ancient Greece - Pederasty - Plato - Philosophy of pederasty

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The Roman emperor Theodosius decreed a law, on August 6th, 390, condemning passive homosexuals to be burned at the stake. Justinian, towards the end of his reign, expanded the proscription to the active partner as well (in 558) warning that such conduct can lead to the destruction of cities through the "wrath of God." Notwithstanding these regulations, taxes on homosexual boy brothels continued to be collected until the end of the reign of Anastasius in 581.

Related Topics:
Roman - Theodosius - 390 - Justinian - 558 - Brothels - Anastasius - 581

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During the Renaissance, cities in northern Italy, Florence and Venice in particular, were renowned for their widespread practice of same-sex love, engaged in by a majority of the male population and constructed along the classical pattern of Greece and Rome (Ruggiero, 1985; Rocke, 1996). But even as the majority of the male population was engaging in same-sex relationships, the authorities, under the aegis of the Officers of the Night court, were prosecuting, fining and imprisoning a good portion of that population. The eclipse of this period of relative artistic and erotic freedom was precipitated by the rise to power of the moralizing monk Girolamo Savonarola. Throughout all of Europe, fierce conflicts, dating back to the early Middle Ages, raged between proponents and opponents of same sex love. In northern Europe the artistic discourse on sodomy was turned against its proponents by artists like Rembrandt who in his "Rape of Ganymede" no longer depicted Ganymede as a willing youth, but as a squalling baby attacked by a rapacious bird of prey.

Related Topics:
Renaissance - Florence - Venice - (Ruggiero, 1985; Rocke, 1996) - Officers of the Night - Girolamo Savonarola - Middle Ages - Rembrandt - "Rape of Ganymede" - Ganymede

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Middle East and Central Asia

Among many Middle-Eastern Muslim cultures homosexual practices were widespread and public, and recent work in queer studies suggests that while their visibility has been much reduced, their frequency has not. The two most commonly documented forms were commercial sex with transgender males or males enacting transgender roles exemplified by the koceks and the bacchas, and Sufi spiritual practices in which the practitioner crossed over from the idealized chaste form of the practice to one in which the desire is consummated.

Related Topics:
Middle-Eastern - Queer studies - Transgender - Kocek - Baccha - Sufi

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Around both forms a rich tradition of art and literature sprang up, constructing Middle Eastern homosexuality in ways analogous to the ancient tradition of male love in which Ganymede, cup-bearer to the gods, symbolized the ideal boyfriend. Muslim - often Sufi - poets in medieval Arab lands and in Persia wrote odes to the beautiful Christian wine boys who - they claimed - served them in the taverns and shared their beds at night. In many areas the practice survived into modern times (as documented by Richard Francis Burton, André Gide and many others).

Related Topics:
Ganymede - Sufi - Arab - Persia - Richard Francis Burton - André Gide

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In Central Asia, on the Silk Route, the two traditions of the east and the west met, and gave rise to a strong local culture of same-sex love. In the Turkic-speaking areas, one manifestation of this were the bacchá, adolescent or adolescent-seeming male entertainers and sex workers. In other areas male love continues to surface despite efforts to keep it quiet. After the American invasion of Afghanistan, Central Asian same-sex love customs in which adult men take on adolescent lovers, were widely reported.

Related Topics:
Central Asia - Silk Route - Turkic - Bacchá

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Other forms are less well documented. It is reported that in the oasis of Siwa boy marriages were the norm until the middle of the twentieth century, a practice which was coupled with a minimum age for heterosexual marriage of forty for the men, a measure presumed to have been taken to avoid overpopulation. Finally, sexual relations between older and younger boys are said to be frequent in the Middle East as well as in the Maghreb.

Related Topics:
Siwa - Maghreb

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The prevailing pattern of same-sex relationships in the temperate and sub-tropical zone stretching from Northern India to the Western Sahara is one in which the relationships were - and are - either gender-structured or age-structured, or both. In recent years, egalitarian relationships modelled on the western pattern have become more frequent, if still rare.

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See Pederasty in Central Asia and the Middle East, Kocek, Baccha, Tellak

Related Topics:
Pederasty in Central Asia and the Middle East - Kocek - Baccha - Tellak

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South Pacific

In many societies of Melanesia same-sex relationships are an integral part of the culture. In some tribes of Papua New Guinea, for example, it is considered a normal ritual responsibility for a boy to have a relationship as a part of his ascent into manhood. Many Melanesian societies, however, have become hostile towards same-sex relationships since the introduction of Christianity by European missionaries.

Related Topics:
Melanesia - Papua New Guinea - Christianity - European - Missionaries

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Modern Developments

Shortly after World War II the gay community began to make advancements in civil rights in much of the Western World. A turning point was reached in 1973 when, in a vote decided by a plurality of the membership, the American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, thus no longer listing homosexuality as a mental disorder.

Related Topics:
World War II - Gay community - Civil rights - Western World - 1973 - American Psychiatric Association - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Mental disorder

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During the last few decades, in part due to their history of shared oppression, many gays in the West have developed a shared culture, although not all gays participate in it, and many gay men and women specifically decline to do so. The various approaches to the question of what queer culture should be are exemplified by the gay pride movement. Some gay groups organized campaigns around the AIDS outbreak. As of 2005, four countries have enacted same-sex marriage and other countries, including the majority of Europe, enacted civil unions. Publicly gay politicians have attained numerous government posts, even in countries that had sodomy laws or outright mass murder of gays in their recent past.

Related Topics:
Culture - Gay pride - AIDS - 2005 - Same-sex marriage - Europe - Civil unions - Sodomy laws - Mass murder of gays

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The overall trend of greater acceptance of gay men and women in the latter part of the 20th Century was not limited to secular institutions; it was also seen in many religious institutions. Reform Judaism, the largest branch of Judaism outside Israel had begun to facilitate religious weddings for gay adherents in their synagogues. The Anglican Communion, the world's second largest Christian Church in terms of members had nearly fractured due to the Churches in the Western World ordaining gay clergy and blessing same-sex unions against the wishes of those in the developing world, where a morality first adopted in colonial times still predominates. (See Post-colonialism) Other Churches such as the Methodist Church had experienced trials of gay clergy who some claimed were a violation of religious principles resulting in mixed verdicts dependent on geography.

Related Topics:
20th Century - Secular - Religious - Reform Judaism - Judaism - Israel - Weddings - Anglican Communion - Christian - Developing world - Post-colonialism - Methodist Church

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These developments have been accompanied by a response from religious organizations, especially in the United States. In various instances, this movement has succeeded in overturning some of the abovementioned legislation and has had an influence on academia. In late 2005, Haworth Press withdrew from publication a volume on homosexuality in classical antiquity titled Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West. This was in response to criticism from American conservative groups which objected to the discussion of positive aspects of classical pederasty, as well as to a chapter by the American academic Bruce Rind which was branded by the critics as advocating pedophilia. (see Anti-gay slogan) The publisher, in a letter to the editors, exonerated Rind from the accusation and conceded that his article was sound, but stood by its decision to withdraw it "to avoid negative press" and "economic repercussions."Article in the Halifax The Chronicle Herald

Related Topics:
2005 - Anti-gay slogan

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