History of homosexuality

The study of the history of homosexuality attempts to catalog evidence of homosexuality from its earliest occurrences to the present.

Terminology relating to the history of homosexuality

The use of the term homosexuality in the study of ancient sexuality has found some dissatisfaction, due to the lack of a specific term in ancient literature corresponding to the modern concept of persons who are consistently sexually attracted to their own gender, versus the opposite sex. However, ancient literature refers to those who by their actions seem to have manifested such, especially as regards the male who played the female partner. The primary moral authority on the subject, the Bible, does not explicitly refer to homosexual inclination, though it is reasonable to believe that the word malakos, translated effeminate (1Cor. 6:9) in the KJV may denote homosexual orientation. In contrast to modern times however, to be the effeminate partner was considered shameful for a man. The lack of terms in the Bible for certain behaviors which correspond to modern psychological diagnostics may also be explained as being due to the fact that the Bible does not justify inherently unlawful actions even if one has an inner inclination to do them, but calls and enables victory over such. (Gn. 4:7; Col. 3:5-8)

Homosexuality in the Bible

Main article: Homosexuality and biblical interpretation

See also Homosexuality and the Bible

Homosexuality, as evidenced by homosexual acts, is manifested not long after the fall of man and its resultant harmful effects, with man realizing an Adamic nature and its tendency to sin. Many Christian scholars believe that Ham, the youngest son of Noah, committed a homosexual act on his father, while the latter was asleep, having been overcome with wine. Later, Leviticus 18 universally outlaws men laying with men as with women, with this being a capital crime, (Lv. 18:22; 20:13), with an additional separate prohibition evidently forbidding homosexual religious prostitution. (Dt. 23:17) The context of these commands is one which invokes the practice of Israel's surrounding culture as an example of what not to do, thus evidencing that this was a pagan cultural practice. Additional evidence shows that homosexual practice was generally not outlawed in the Ancient Near East (ANE), and was certainly tolerated in that area and time in private as well as religious life. Miller adds that in contrast, "Israel's God condemned this behavior in EVERY culture in which it was mentioned(!): ANE (i.e. Sodom), Canaanite and Egyptian (i.e. Lev 18:3), Israelite (Lev 18, 20), Roman (Rom 1), Hellenistic (I Tim 1.9), and Greek (I Cor 6.9)." For the follower of the Bible therefore, homosexuality is not new, nor unexpected, but neither is it justified, as God is seen giving man grace to resist and overcome sin. (Gn. 4:7; Ja. 1:12-15)

Jewish and early ecclesiastical attitudes toward homosexuality

In addition to what is evidenced in the study of homosexuality and biblical interpretation, Gagnon notes that "every piece of evidence that we have about Jewish views of same-sex intercourse in the Second Temple period and beyond is unremittingly hostile to such behavior.

First Century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (AD 37-100) wrote in his Commentary on the history of the Jews,

“As for adultery, Moses forbade it entirely, as esteeming it a happy thing that men should be wise in the affairs of wedlock; and that it was profitable both to cities and families that children should be known to be genuine. He also abhorred men’s lying with their mothers, as one of the greatest crimes; and the like for lying with the father’s wife, and with aunts, and sisters, and sons’ wives, as all instances of abominable wickedness. He also forbade a man to lie with his wife when she was defiled by her natural purgation: and not to come near brute beasts; nor to approve of the lying with a male, which was to hunt after unlawful pleasures on account of beauty. To those who were guilty of such insolent behavior, he ordained death for their punishment.” (Antiquities, 3:12.1)

Also,

And why do not the Eleans and Thebans abolish that unnatural (para physin) and impudent lust, which makes them lie with males? For they will not shew sufficient sign of their repentance of what they of old thought to be very excellent, and very advantageous in their practices, unless they entirely avoid all such actions for the time to come: nay, such things are inserted into the body of their laws, and had once such a power among the Greeks, that they ascribed these sodomitical practices to the gods themselves, as part of their good character; and indeed it was according to the same manner that the gods married their own sisters. This the Greeks contrived as an apology for their own absurd and unnatural (para physin) pleasures. (Against Apion, 2.273-75)

More abundant are statements by early church leaders on the subject, many of which testify to its existence of homosexuality among the Greeks and Romans.

"You shall not commit fornication; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not be a corrupter of youth." - Letter of Barnabas 10 (A.D. 74).

"You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill one that has been born." - Didache 2:2 (A.D. 90).

"...to expose newly-born children is the part of wicked men; and this we have been taught lest we should do anyone harm and lest we should sin against God, first, because we see that almost all so exposed (not only the girls, but also the males) are brought up to prostitution. And for this pollution a multitude of females and hermaphrodites, and those who commit unmentionable iniquities, are found in every nation...And there are some who prostitute even their own children and wives, and some are openly mutilated for the purpose of sodomy; and they refer these mysteries to the mother of the gods." - Justin Martyr, First Apology 27 (A.D. 151).

"All honor to that king of the Scythians, whoever Anacharsis was, who shot with an arrow one of his subjects who imitated among the Scythians the mystery of the mother of the gods . . . condemning him as having become effeminate among the Greeks, and a teacher of the disease of effeminacy to the rest of the Scythians." Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks 2 (A.D. 190).

"For your gods did not even abstain from boys, one having loved Hylas, another Hyacinthus, another Pelops, another Chrysippus, another Ganymede." - Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks 2 (A.D. 190).

"[A]ll other frenzies of the lusts which exceed the laws of nature, and are impious toward both bodies and the sexes, we banish, not only from the threshold but also from all shelter of the Church, for they are not sins so much as monstrosities." - Tertullian, Modesty 4 (A.D. 220).

"[T]urn your looks to the abominations, not less to be deplored, of another kind of spectacle…Men are emasculated, and all the pride and vigor of their sex is effeminated in the disgrace of their enervated body; and he is more pleasing there who has most completely broken down the man into the woman. He grows into praise by virtue of his crime; and the more he is degraded, the more skillful he is considered to be. Such a one is looked upon--oh shame!--and looked upon with pleasure…nor is there wanting authority for the enticing abomination…that Jupiter of theirs [is] not more supreme in dominion than in vice, inflamed with earthly love in the midst of his own thunders…now breaking forth by the help of birds to violate the purity of boys. And now put the question: Can he who looks upon such things be healthy-minded or modest? Men imitate the gods whom they adore, and to such miserable beings their crimes become their religion." - Cyprian of Carthage, Letters 1:8 (A.D. 253).

"[T]he mother of the gods loved [the boy Attis] exceedingly, because he was of most surpassing beauty; and Acdestis [the son of Jupiter] who was his companion, as he grew up fondling him, and bound to him by wicked compliance with his lust…Afterwards, under the influence of wine, he [Attis] admits that he is…loved by Acdestis…Then Midas, king of Pessinus, wishing to withdraw the youth from so disgraceful an intimacy, resolves to give him his own daughter in marriage…Acdestis, bursting with rage because of the boy's being torn from himself and brought to seek a wife, fills all the guests with frenzied madness; the Phrygians shriek, panic-stricken at the appearance of the gods . . . [Attis] too, now filled with furious passion, raving frantically and tossed about, throws himself down at last, and under a pine tree mutilates himself, saying, `Take these, Acdestis, for which you have stirred up so great and terribly perilous commotions.'" - Arnobius, Against the Pagans 5:6-7 (A.D. 305).

“But we do not say so of that mixture that is contrary to nature, or of any unlawful practice; for such are enmity to God. For the sin of Sodom is contrary to nature, as is also that with brute beasts. But adultery and fornication are against the law; the one whereof is impiety, the other injustice, and, in a word, no other than a great sin. But neither sort of them is without its punishment in its own proper nature. For the practicers of one sort attempt the dissolution of the world, and endeavor to make the natural course of things to change for one that is unnatural; but those of the second son — the adulterers — are unjust by corrupting others’ marriages, and dividing into two what God hath made one, rendering the children suspected, and exposing the true husband to the snares of others. And fornication is the destruction of one’s own flesh, not being made use of for the procreation of children, but entirely for the sake of pleasure, which is a mark of incontinency, and not a sign of virtue. All these things are forbidden by the laws; for thus say the oracles: Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind. For such a one is accursed, and ye shall stone them with stones: they have wrought abomination.” - Methodius, bishop of Olympus and Patara (AD 260-312), Commentary on the sin of Sodom.

"[H]aving forbidden all unlawful marriage, and all unseemly practice, and the union of women with women and men with men, he [God] adds: `Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for in all these things the nations were defiled, which I will drive out before you. And the land was polluted, and I have recompensed [their] iniquity upon it, and the land is grieved with them that dwell upon it' [Lev. 18:24-25]." - Eusebius of Caesarea, Proof of the Gospel 4:10 (A.D. 319).

"“They who have committed sodomy with men or brutes, murderers, wizards, adulterers, and idolaters, have been thought worthy of the same punishment; therefore observe the same method with these which you do with others." - Basil, Letters 217:62 (A.D. 367).

"[The pagans] were addicted to the love of boys, and one of their wise men made a law that pederasty…should not be allowed to slaves, as if it was an honorable thing; and they had houses for this purpose, in which it was openly practiced. And if all that was done among them was related, it would be seen that they openly outraged nature, and there was none to restrain them… As for their passion for boys, whom they called their 'paedica,' it is not fit to be named." - John Chrysostom, Homilies on Titus 5 (A.D. 390]).

"[Certain men in church] come in gazing about at the beauty of women; others curious about the blooming youth of boys. After this, do you not marvel that [lightning] bolts are not launched [from heaven], and all these things are not plucked up from their foundations? For worthy both of thunderbolts and hell are the things that are done; but God, who is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forbears awhile his wrath, calling you to repentance and amendment." - John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew 3:3 (A.D. 391).

"All of these affections [in Rom. 1:26-27]… were vile, but chiefly the mad lust after males; for the soul is more the sufferer in sins, and more dishonored than the body in diseases." - John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans 4 (A.D. 391).

"[The men] have done an insult to nature itself. And a yet more disgraceful thing than these is it, when even the women seek after these intercourses, who ought to have more shame than men." - John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans 4 (A.D. 391).

"And sundry other books of the philosophers one may see full of this disease. But we do not therefore say that the thing was made lawful, but that they who received this law were pitiable, and objects for many tears. For these are treated in the same way as women that play the whore. Or rather their plight is more miserable. For in the case of the one the intercourse, even if lawless, is yet according to nature; but this is contrary both to law and nature. For even if there were no hell, and no punishment had been threatened, this would be worse than any punishment." - John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans 4 (A.D. 391).

"[T]hose shameful acts against nature, such as were committed in Sodom, ought everywhere and always to be detested and punished. If all nations were to do such things, they would be held guilty of the same crime by the law of God, which has not made men so that they should use one another in this way." - Augustine, Confessions 3:8:15 (A.D. 400).

"[Christians] abhor all unlawful mixtures, and that which is practiced by some contrary to nature, as wicked and impious." - Apostolic Constitutions 6:11 (A.D. 400).

Extra-biblical occurrences

The two most principal areas of historical inquiry which have been studied by historians in relation to ancient occurrences of homosexuality are Greek homosexuality and Roman homosexuality. See also Romans 1.

The largest amount of material pertinent to issues of sexuality is from Greece, from dialogues of Plato, such as the Symposium, to plays by Aristophanes, and Greek artwork and vases. James B. De Young notes that homosexuality seems to have existed more widely among the ancient Greeks more than among any other ancient culture. The main form of this was pederasty, a custom that seems to have been practiced mostly among the upper classes, in which an older man (the erastest) would make a young free boy (the eromenos) his sex partner, and become his mentor. This was regulated by the State as an institution. However, this practice was usually a supplement to marriage, and thus is seen as being done by bisexuals. The practice of pederasty is mentioned in Homer's Illiad, and is evidenced to have existed at least 4500 years ago in ancient Egypt.

Yet the Greeks also practiced other forms of homoeroticism. Homosexual relations existed among equals, though it was considered problematic, as while the predominate man was considered to be masculine, the one who played the female role would be seen as inferior. This role more likely pertained to slaves, or male youths who were not yet citizens.

The famous philosopher Plato (427 B.C. - 346 B.C.) around 348 B.C. describes and implies the widespread practice of homosexuality, and advocates laws to regulate it. One of the most explicit records of disapproval of homosexuality is found in Laws 636c, in which Plato, speaking through the character of the Athenian stranger, describes homosexual relations as an "enormity" or "crime" (tolmema), and explains that it derives from being enslaved to pleasure. He plainly rejects homosexual behavior as "unnatural" (para physin), as “When male unites with female for procreation the pleasure experienced is held to be due to nature, but contrary to nature when male mates with male or female with female”. Homosexuality is also described regarded as shameful by barbarians and by those who live under despotic governments.

In Plutarch's Dialogue on Love, he has Daphnaeus disparage "union contrary to nature with males" (he para physin homilia pros arrenas), as contrasted to "the love between men and women," which is characterized as "natural" (te physei). A few sentences later, Daphnaeus complains that those who "consort with males" willingly are guilty of "weakness and effeminacy," because "contrary to nature (para physin)," they "allow themselves in Plato's words 'to be covered and mounted like cattle'" (Dialogue on Love 751C, E). However, he also wrote that "The noble lover of beauty engages in love wherever he sees excellence and splendid natural endowment without regard for any difference in physiological detail", and which many use to endorse homosexuality.

Plato's Symposium, a collection of ideas on love by several friends of Socrates, with the latter's thoughts at the end, acknowledges homosexuality as a condition. Aristophanes posits that there were three kinds of beings from the beginning, that of the male, the female - and a third androgynous - type of person. Zeus is said to have cut these humans in half so that they seek their other sexual counterpart, or in the case of composite being, their own sex. Aristophanes then describes the latter as being such as prefer their own gender, in which he includes lesbianism, and all of which the pagan philosopher commends.Young notes that in Symposium, Plato anticipates virtually every element in the modern discussion the homosexual condition. This reality stands in opposition to the premise which many pro-homosexual writers rely upon, in seeking to disallow the universal condemnation of homoeroticism in Romans 1.

Additional sources in Plato's Symposium which evidence and advocate homosexuality in Greek culture, including some that speak of a predisposition towards it, include The Speech of Pausanias (181b-185c), The speech of Socrates (209c-d; 210e-211e). The Speech of Alcibiades (215a-222b). Selections from the Phaedrus (231c-240c) also give indications of how homosexuality was thought of in Greek philosophy.

Attitudes toward homosexuality varied in Greece, as general strictures against same-sex eros existed in parts of Ionia, while in Elis and Boiotia (e.g., Thebes), it was approved of and sometimes celebrated.

Lesbian passion, as termed by the Greeks, is not seen as obtaining the same social sanction as pederasty. It is noted that Greek mythology offers no legends of the goddesses parallel to the homosexual acts between the the male Greek gods. In the Amores of Lucian (an Assyrian rhetorician, 125- approx. 180), the character Charicles, who supports the cause of normal heterosexual passion, warns,

"If you concede homosexual love to males, you must in justice grant the same to females; you will have to sanction carnal intercourse between them; monstrous instruments of lust will have to be permitted, in order that their sexual congress may be carried out; that obscene vocable, tribad, which so rarely offends our ears--I blush to utter it--will become rampant, and Philænis will spread androgynous orgies throughout our harems."

In Amores 28, one of Lucians characters states that it would be better for a women to invade the dominion of male wantonness (homosexuality) than for men to become effeminate.

In Rome homosexuality was also evident, and many Emperors were the most notorious examples of such. Juvenal (60-140 A.D.) and Martial (c. 40-102 A.D.) wrote of formal marriage unions between homosexuals. Some moral philosophers around the time of the apostle Paul questioned the merits of homosexual behaviors. Seneca (4 B.C-65 A.D.), a statesmen and tutor to the homosexual emperor Nero, reproved homosexual exploitation, such which which forced a slave to shave his beard, and dress and behave as a women, though Nero himself castrated a boy, and dressed him as female and married him, after killing his wife. Dio Chrysostom (A.D. 40) likewise condemned such exploitation, and commended "natural intercourse" and union of the male and female." Later, in 226 B.C., the Lex Scantinia (149 B.C.) is understood to have penalized homosexual practice.

Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BC to AD 50). Jewish philosopher, theologian, and contemporary of Jesus and Paul, writing on the life of Abraham, states,

Many see Rome realizing a deleterious change in aspects of social morality beginning in the second century B.C, due to the influence and adaptation of "Asiatic luxury and Greek manners", including homosexuality, resulting in a "moral crises from which she never recovered (historian D. Earl)

Ancient laws against homosexual acts

Greek laws existed which regulated pederasty, while later Romans laws went further. During the Roman Imperial period the Lex Julia de adulteris (originally of c.17BCE) was expanded by legal commentators to include first offenses against boys, and possibly all male homosexual acts. The Institutes of the Corpus Juris Civilis (which went into effect Dec 30, 533) is understood by some to sum up the legal opinons:

Institutes IV. xviii .4:

In criminal cases public prosecutions take place under various statutes, including the Lex Julia de adulteris, "…which punishes with death (gladio), not only those who violate the marriages of others, but also those who dare to commit acts of vile lust with [other] men (qui cim masculis nefandum libidinem exercere audent)."

On Dec 16, 342 A.D., Constantius and Constans issued a a legal decision which was included in the later Theodosian Code:

Cod.Theod. IX. Viii. 3: (Cod. Justin IX.ix.31):

When a man marries in the manner of a woman, a woman about to renounce men {quum vir nubit in feminam viris porrecturam), what does he wish, when sex has lost all its significance; when the crime is one which it is not profitable to know; when Venus is changed to another form; when love is sought and not found? We order the statutes to arise, the laws to be armed with an avenging sword, that those infamous persons who are now, or who hereafter may be, guilty may be subjected to exquisite punishment.

The meaning of this is somewhat obscure, and is debated. Homosexual author John Boswell argued that this indicated a previous legal status of same-sex marriage. More explicit is the law issued by Valentinian II, Theodoisus and Arcadius on Aug 6, 390, and which also survives in the Theodosian Code:

Cod.Theod. IX. Vii. 6:

All persons who have the shameful custom of condemning a man's body, acting the part of a woman's to the sufferance of alien sex (for they appear not to be different from women), shall expiate a crime of this kind in avenging flames in the sight of the people.

After late Roman pagan lawyers had already applied the Lex Julia to homosexual acts, Christian emperors enacted laws and issued exhortations against homosexuals, four in a two-hundred year period, with the two by Justinian (527-565) being as much concerned with penance as penalty.

History of homosexuality and myths

Homosexuality is seen by many among mythological Greek gods (similar Romans gods had Latin names). Instances and possibilities include

• Zeus and Ganymede,
• Apollo and Hyacinthus,
• Achilles and Patroclus,
• Heracles (or Hercules) and Hylas,
• Narcissus and Ameinias.
• Other gods who to homosexual affairs are attributed include Orpheus ("the first man to love boys"), Boreas (god of the North Wind) and Thamyris.

Non-uniform occurrence

An notable interesting aspect in regards to the history of homosexuality is that it has been rare in a number of cultures or been absent in some cultures. Dr. Neil Whitehead and Briar Whitehead state regarding various cultures: "If homosexuality were significantly influenced by genes, it would appear in every culture, but in twenty-nine of seventy-nine cultures surveyed by Ford and Beach in 1952, homosexuality was rare or absent."

Modern prevalence and influence

The growth toward mainstream acceptance of homosexuality in the West may be seen as a product of the sexual revolution beginning in the 1960's, which saw widespread rebellion toward moral authority, and against prohibitions against illicit sex in particular. Gay and lesbian rights groups had existed before and grown during that time, but the rebellion which marked that era was distinctly manifested by homosexuals on June 28, 1969 in the Stonewall Riots, in Greenwich Village, injuring police and bystanders. This is seen as marking the beginning of the modern organizing of gay and lesbian groups, and the promotion of what conservatives term the homosexual agenda. Gay Democratic clubs began in every major city, and one fourth of all college campuses had gay and lesbian groups.. The American Psychiatric Association was pressured to removed homosexuality from its official listing of mental disorders, and to treat it as an optional lifestyle. It is contended by some that such changes were due to pressure from the homosexual lobby, which Nicholas Cummings, former president of the APA, states, "is very strong in the APA."

Since Stonewall, the visibility of gays and lesbians has become an increasing aspect of American life, despite the fact that the homosexual lifestyle was the primary cause of the spread of AIDS, which has resulted in the death of over a half million Americans, and many more world wide. In addition to the decreased moral influence by Christians or others, and the increase in erotic sensuality overall, many credit effective homosexual public relations strategy for the increasing acceptance of homosexuality.Instrumental in this strategy were Harvard trained marketing experts and social scientists Marshall Kirk (1957 - 2005) and Hunter Madsen, who advocated avoiding portraying gays as aggressive challengers, but as victims, while making those who opposed them as evil persecutors. The widespread use of the term homophobia against any who oppose homosexuality has been effective in the latter effort.

Various estimates are given for the percentage of homosexuals (though who sexually desire their same genders over the opposite). The early figure of 10% as based upon a report by Alfred E. Kinsey, though often quoted, is not generally considered accurate by profession researchers, due to serious flaws (and even criminal practices) in his studies. A more recent national study found that 1.51% of total U.S. population identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual. Various sources compiled by Thomas E.Schmidt resulted in a figure of 1.8% of the U.S. population being gay or lesbian. With the promotion of homosexuality in schools and society, these figures are expected to rise.

Contemporary conflict

In modern times in the United States the term "Culture War" has been used to describe the polarization on various issues between conservatives and liberals and the issue of homosexuality is part of this conflict. Conservatives point out that the weight of evidence shows there is a significant body of research showing the homosexuality inordinately harms individuals and the larger society as a whole in comparison to heterosexuality (for example, through higher rates of diseases, higher domestic violence rates, etc.).

See also

• Homosexuality and English Speaking Countries
• Homosexuality in other cultures