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Introduction
There has been a huge outpouring of research on lesbian, gay and
bisexual history, as well as the newer "queer studies",
in the past fifteen years. [See the Bibliographical Guide to Lesbian and Gay History for evidence.] But the field is awash with controversies, controversies,
it must be said, which advance our knowledge on all fronts. The
central questions raised address the nature and possibility of
a "history of homosexuality". Some scholars assert that
"homosexuality" as a discrete identity is a very modern
western construction (although the dates suggested by these scholars
vary considerably). Others argue that there have always been "homosexuals"
with some self-awareness, but even they would acknowledge that
the large, highly visible and open "gay and lesbian community:
of the past few decades is a new development in history.
For those who argue that "gays and lesbians" are a new
creation, the only "gay and lesbian history" that can
really deserve the name is the history of the modern political
and social movement. In practice, however, even those who argue
this way accept that homosexual activity in the past was widespread
(however conceived at the time) and that this past is of interest
to modern lesbians and gays. An analogy may be made here with
"national" histories: there was no "English nation"
before the late middle ages - the idea of "nation" is
itself a late development - and yet the history of both Roman Britannia and Anglo-Saxon and earlier medieval England
is fairly studied as contributing to the history of the modern
English nation. In the same way the lives and activities of those
who were sexually active, or attracted to, members of the same
sex, as well as the attitudes of others towards them may fairly
be said to constitute a history of interest to modern lesbians,
gays and bisexuals.
But what makes up "modern lesbian, gay and bisexual"
[hereafter "LGB"] identity? Clearly "sexuality"
- broadly understood as sexual activity and understandings of
such activity - plays an important part. The history of sexuality,
and especially homosexual activity, is a subject for LGB history.
Some indeed would seek to limit LGB history to a history of sexual
activity. It does not seem accurate, however, to restrict modern
understandings of LGB identities to sex. There are, and have been,
societies in which same-sex sexual activity has been widespread
but has had little or no emotional significance [as with some
modern prison homosexuality]. But a preference for, or orientation
to, homosexual activity is only part of modern LGB identities.
Just as important is an emphasis on emotional contact and partnership
with another person of the same sex [called "homoaffectionalism"
by author Paul Hardman]. Social surveys of modern lesbians and
gays in couples show this clearly: the relationships continue
to be emotionally central to participants even if sexual activity
after a number of years becomes minimal or non-existent. On the
other hand, in modern European and American societies emotionally
intense same-sex relationships -- sometimes called "friendship"
in the past -- have very limited, if any, public role. It is not
uncommon for people to claim that they have "hundreds of
friends", a nonsensical statement if "friend" were
to have its significance in ancient and medieval European discourses.
There is thus some reason to claim the history of friendship is
of special interest to modern LGBs, who preserve with their subcultures
a tradition of intense emotional same-sex friendship, both with
sexual partners and with others.
The "History of (Homo-)Sexuality" and
"Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual History"
Traditional history has sought to understand past and present
societies with categories of analysis such as politics, thought, economics, and, at least since Karl Marx, class. In the past twenty or so years other categories
of analysis, not considered important in the past, have appeared
as significant to many historians. Perhaps the most important
of these is gender. To these historians Gender is the cultural meaning given to the rather limited facts of biology. One aspect of gender analysis consists
in looking at how "men" and "women", "masculinity"
and "femininity", are understood in a society - and
at how such understandings play out in people's lives. Another,
even newer, aspect of gender analysis looks at issues of sexual
behavior and sexuality.
Although Western medievalist, John Boswell, who legitimated lesbian
and gay history as a field of study in his book Christianity,
Social Tolerance and Homosexuality (1980) famously advanced
the theory that "Gay people" have always and everywhere
existed, this has not been widely accepted by scholars. Since
1980 a very specific theory the history of sexuality as it applies
to homosexuals, has come to be accepted by the majority of historians
working in the field. The model now is this:
Homosexual behaviors exist in most societies, and in most,
including European society until about 1700, homosexuality falls
into two main patterns (at least for men.) One pattern is based
on age-dissonant sexual dominance; an older man
(not always very much older by the way) will take a conventionally
"male" role in a sexual relationship with a younger
male, but will not, in doing so, be regarded as any different
from other "male" men in general society. The second
common pattern is based on gender-dissonant sexual
dominance; this means that in a number of societies there were
"biological" males who lived as "non-males"
throughout their lives, and these people can also be the sexual
partners of "male" men without the "men" loosing
any status. The Native American berdache is perhaps the
most famous example of a widespread phenomenon.
Around 1700, in Western Europe a change took place. A subculture of effeminate men arose in major cities, men who identified themselves
as different. The word "molly" was used in London and
other words elsewhere. Although they were prepared to have sex
with "male" men these "mollies" were also
prepared to have sex with each other. This is not, it seems, common
across various societies. Some historians have called this the
emergence of a "third gender".
Since "a third gender" is not the model of modern
homosexuality in the West, there has been a question of when the
"modern homosexual" emerged. Many writers have argued
that that the medicalization of homosexuality in the late nineteenth
century resulted in the creation of a new creature - the "modern
homosexual" (and the "modern heterosexual"!) What
distinguishes "homo-" and "heterosexuals"
from earlier models of sexuality is that they are in strict opposition
to each other, and are defined not by gender role, or even sexual
role, but by "sexual orientation". Certainly in Germany
in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century there was
a clear notion of homosexuality, and a political movement based
on it.
A major recent readjustment of this theory, resulting from
the work of George Chauncey in his recent Gay New York.
Chauncey has called into question the last part of the traditional
formulation. He argues that elite terminology and labels (also
known as "medicalization") had no immediate effect on
the mass of working class New Yorkers (with the suggestion that
this was probably true elsewhere.) That although there were, eventually,
some self-identified "queers", until as late 1940 [!]
it was common for working-class men to have "male role"
sex with other men ["fairies"] without in any way feeling
that they were "homosexual". What happened around 1940,
the Chauncey-amended model says is that, first, more and more
of the mass of the population began to identify as "heterosexual"
and see any homosexual behavior as transgressive; and secondly
among self-identified "queers" a shift in desired sexual
partner took place. Previously "queers" had tended to
prefer "male" men but now "queers" began to
prefer other "queers" as sexual partners.
It was this emergence of a social identity of "homosexual"
which enabled lesbian and gay people to come together, recognize
each other, and begin a social movement for legal, political and
social equality.
As can be seen current discussion amongst historians focuses on
the history of Western sexuality. It would also seem to imply
that there were no "homosexuals", or "heterosexuals",
in the past nor in other cultures [there was of course always
homo- and heterosexual behavior]. In reading the various texts
from other cultures below, readers might consider if the current
dominant model applies as widely as its proponents suppose?
"Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual History"
and Same-Sex Friendship
Lesbian history has long been roiled by the issue of "Romantic
friendship" - with Lillian Faderman's Surpassing the Love
of Men (in which she discusses women's romantic friendships).
The question posed comes down to this "Does it matter whether
they had sex?" It turns out that there is more evidence of
lesbian sex than Faderman may have noticed (see Emma Donahue's
book on Early Modern British Lesbian), but for "gay"
history this has seemed less of a problem: there is no shortage
of evidence about sexual activity between men in the past. If
we want to restrict history for gay people to the history of same
sex activity, we can do so. The result might be a sorry story
of oppression, appearances in court, and Bohemian exceptions,
but it is there.
But is this all there is, or is the wider topic of male-male emotional
relationships also part of "gay" history? This is the
real issue with the whole debate over Boswell's Same Sex Unions.
In fact the issue of "Romantic friendship" between men
is shaping up as a real panel-buster at conferences [perhaps we
need a book "Surpassing the Love of Women" to discuss
it?]. When we ask the question "Does it matter if they were
having sex?", we have to ask "matter to whom [?]?".
And if we have "Romantic Friendship" plus "socially
created kinship" minus-"demonstrated or publically validated
sexual activity", as seems to have been the case with adelphopoiia,
what exactly are we dealing with? Clearly it is not unambiguous
"gay history".
Some writers have argued that "homosociality, homoeroticism,
and homosexuality are analytically distinct". In response,
I would note that almost anything can be distinguished from anything
else, and, to use a medieval terminology, nominalism is surely
more accurate that realism in discussions of human relationships.
If one wanted, I am sure one could make an argument that "homo-whatever"
relationships between modern mid-American white men were qualitatively
distinct from interracial relationships in LA, and then go on
to insist that since they are analytically distinct, they should
not be "confounded" by "gay historians". The
issue, of course, is who makes the distinctions. All sorts of
perspectives can be taken on this: sometimes mere whim is involved,
at other times social power relations are involved. As far as
I am concerned, history is written to be read: it involves narratives
and analyses of current concern. So, why should we choose to argue that "homosociality, homoeroticism, and homosexuality"
are analytically distinct? I think that there is no justification
for distinguishing homoeroticsm and homosexuality as areas of
analysis.
I am more prepared to listen to arguments about homosociality,
so nicely misrepresented by the word "friendship", as
a necessarily distinct phenomenon, but would ask what is gained
and what is lost making the distinction? Does making the distinction
make the past clearer or more obscure? Or is some sort of analytic
tension required? I would argue that in the modern Western construction
of homosexuality, traditions of romantic friendship have played
crucial roles: in writers such as John Addington Symonds, Walt
Whitman, a real gay tradition of reading Plato's Symposium,
and so forth. In other words, there is a direct and demonstrable
historical appropriation of traditions of romantic friendship
by nineteenth and early twentieth century homosexual men which
precedes "gay" and "gay history".
FIN
INVITATION TO CONTRIBUTE
If you have texts which could be added to this page, please consider
sending them to me at .
Texts can include texts from the past, or papers you have written
about homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgendering in history.
For teachers of courses on LGBT subjects an important choice is
always whether to address "events and people" or "theory"
first. In most areas of history this is simply not an issue: courses
focus on periods and any relevant "theory" -- for example,
Marxist economics, Whig politics -- is discussed as it come up.
But LGBT history almost from the outset has been intertwined with
complex discussions about what makes a "homosexual".
It is also true that much of the evidence about "homosexuality"
in the past survives in sources which have long been of interest
to philologists, philosophers, and literary critics. The result
is that the field is awash with jargonistic discussions. These
discussions are not, however, pointless, and have raised basic
questions about the entire arena of the history of human sexuality.
Discussions:
John Thorp, Review Article/Discussion, The Social Construction of HomosexualityPhoenix, [At Medieval Sourcebook]
Thorp analyzes one of the defining debates in the academic study
of homosexuality in the past. He attacks the notion that there
was no "homosexuality" in ancient Greece by considering
claims of Foucault and Halperin.
Rictor Norton: Synopsis of The Myth of the Modern Homosexual: Queer History and the
Search for Cultural Unity, (London: Cassells, 1997) [At Norton's
website]
Norton is an opponent of "social construction" theories.
He holds that the proper subject of gay history is queer culture
in the past.
Richard Mohr: "John Boswell and Gay Generations",
[At TCP]
Although a number of gay historians have been critical of John
Boswell (along with the usual right-wing critics), many others
have appreciated what he brought to gay historical studies.
Vincent Cheng: Judith Butler's Obliteration of the "I" [At Berkeley]
A paper on Butler's concept of "performitivity" - now
a major theme in a number of LGBT research projects.
Marc Greyling: INVENTING QUEER PLACE: Social space and the urban environment as factors in the writing
of gay, lesbian and transgender histories [At maya.eagles.bbs.net.au]
Frederick Whitam, A Question of Sexual Orientation,
ASU RESEARCH, 23Aug95 [At Arizona State U.]
Summary of ethnographic report, with claims of genetic basis for
homosexuality
LeFonque's PostModern Hotspots [At coc.com.au]
Contemporary Philosophy, Critical Theory and Postmodern Thought
Resources.
Foucault Home Page [At CSUN]
Discussion of the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault has
been central to some recent historiography of LGBT's. This is
probably the best Foucault site, and has links to others. The
links page here provides references to sites concerned with the
other divinities of "theory" - Nietzsche, Lacan, Heidigger,
Derrida, Deleuze. Some would argue it is all a commentary on Nietzsche.
The Gay Gene [At AOL]
A site run by Chandler Burr for "both scientists and non-scientists.
It contains articles and links to ongoing studies. Much of the
"critical theory" aspect of discussion about LGBT history
has been founded on the assumption that "sexuality"
is a human "social construction". This notion does have solid backing from anthropological data. A major challenge
to the "constructionist" position has arisen with the
publication of a number of different studies which suggest that
homosexuality has a genetic basis in at least some people.
The oldest human cultures complex enough to be called "civilizations"
seem to have emerged in Ancient Iraq and Turkey, and in Egypt.
The basic historical distinction between the two areas is that
Egypt had a more or less continuous "national" history
from the earliest Pharoahs until the rise of Islam, while Iraq,
Syria and Anatolia, being much more geographically exposed, were
homes to succeeding and not entirely continuous cultures - Sumeria,
Akkad, Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Seleucia, to name only a few.
Despite the immense time covered, research into homosexuality
seems to have only just begun for these areas, and this is a section
of this page that will be developed as more information becomes
available. So far much of the discussion is based on Biblical
texts, and on the assumption that the hostility of the Hebrew
Bible to homosexual practice reflects homosexual activities associated
with the surrounding religions.
An area which need more research is evidence of "homoaffectionalism"
in these ancient societies: that is relationships based on desire
but not necessarily sexual. The epic story of Gilgamesh contains
one very important story in this regard.
Discussions:
None as yet
Texts:
The Book of Ani, or the Egyptian Book of the Dead [At Upenn]
The is the full text in E. Wallis Budge's translation. Homosexual
activity is addressed in the "Negative Confession".
Search for "lain with men".
Contendings of Horus and Seth [trans Edward F. Wente, in The Literature of Ancient Egypt, ed. William Kelly Simpson, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972), 108-26
The struggled between these two gods (Seth was brother and murderer
of Horus's father Osiris) in this New Kingdom literary text, has distinct homosexual overtones - based on who was dominating whom.
Epic of Gilgamesh [extended summary] [At WSU]
Only a long summary is available online. Note that in Tablet I:
Cols. 5-6, Gilgamesh relationship with Enkudu is explicitly said
to be like that "with a wife". Some versions, especially
summaries, elide the homoeroticism of the text..
Avesta Vendidad: Fargard 8 - Zoroastrian Law Book on Homosexuality [At Avesta Homepage, with
links to text in original language]
There is some difficulty in dating Zoroastrian scriptures. The Gathas, the presumed writings of Zoroaster, are silent
on the subject. The legal texts here were collected in
the Vendidad, circa 250-650 CE, and are overtly hostile
to male homosexual activity. It has been suggested that they are
the root of the Hebrew Scripture's condemnation - they contain
the phrase "Lies with mankind as womankind" for instance.
This depends on the assumption that Vendidad is a collection
is of much earlier texts. But given the dates the influence may
have been from the Hebrew texts. There is a general discussion
of Zoroastrianism and Homosexuality on the net.
For modern western gays and lesbians, Ancient Greece has long
functioned as sort of homosexual Arcadia. Greek culture was, and
is, highly privileged as one of the foundations of Western culture
and the culture of sexuality apparent in its literature was quite
different from the "repression" experienced by moderns.
The sense of possibility the Greek experienced opened up can be
seen in a scene in E.M. Forster's Maurice where the hero
is seen reading Plato's Symposium at Cambridge.
It would be too simple, however, to see Greek homosexuality as
just a more idyllic form than modern versions. As scholars have
gone to work on the -- plentiful -- material several tropes have
become common. One set of scholars (slightly old-fashioned now)
looks for the "origin" of Greek homosexuality, as if
it were a new type of game, and argues that, since the literature
depicts homosexual eros among the fifth-century aristocracy,
it functioned as sort of fashion among that group. This is rather
like arguing that because nineteenth-century English novels depict
romance as an activity of the gentry and aristocracy, other classes
did not have romantic relationships. Another, now more prevalent,
group of scholars argue that term "homosexual", referring
they say to sexual orientation, is inappropriate to discussions
of Greek sexual worlds. Rather they stress the age dissonance
in literary homoerotic ideals, and the importance of "active"
and "passive" roles. Some stress these themes so intently
that it comes as a surprise to discover that we now the names
of quite number of long-term Greek homosexual couples.
As a result of such scholarly discussions, it is no longer possible
to portray Greece as a homosexual paradise. It remains the case
that the Greek experience of eros was quite different from
experiences in the modern world, and yet continues, because of
Greece's persistent influence on modern norms to be of special
interest.
Discussions:
Paul Halsall: Homosexual Eros in Greece (1986)
A not terribly analytical paper prepared for a master's degree.
For Greek texts, in addition to complete English texts (when available),
there are also links, where possible, to PERSEUS,
an Internet resources which gives access to texts in both English
and hyper-linked Greek.
Philosophical Views of Eros
Plato (427-347 BCE): The Symposium (complete in one file, English)
The classic discussion of the nature of "eros". This
text provided a cultural basis for many educated homosexuals in
later eras.
Plato (427-347 BCE): The Symposium,[At
Perseus, in English, with Greek text accessible]
Plato (427-347 BCE): Phreadrus,
(complete in one file, English), [At UPenn]
Plato's use of homosexual eros, and the figure of the Charioteer
of the soul, has been of lasting importance in positive conceptions
of homosexual love.
Plato (427-347 BCE): Phreadrus,[At
Perseus, in English, with Greek text accessible]
Plato (427-347 BCE): The Laws (excerpts)
Plato, although seeing eros as fundamentally homosexual in the
Symposium, adopted a more negative view here. He describes homosexual
sex as "unnatural".
Plato (427-347 BCE): The Laws,
636bff [At Perseus, in English, with Greek text accessible]
Homer (c.850 BCE), Achilles Meets the Ghost of Patroclus, Illiad 23, [At Perseus, in English, with Greek text accessible]
Although Homer does not present Achilles and Patroclus as homosexually
active, later Greeks assumed that they were.
Sappho (late 7th C. BCE): Poems,
[At Sappho.com]
The first poet to call the moon "silvery", very few
of Sappho's poems survive (only one in its entirety). But her
poems are among the best evidence we have of Lesbian love in antiquity.
Aristophanes (c.445-c.385 BCE): The Clouds (complete in one file, English), [At MIT]
Aristophanes (c.445-c.385 BCE): The Clouds,
[At Perseus, in English, with Greek text accessible]
Although overtly "homophobic" at times, Aristophanes
assumes homosexuality is both common and a normal aspect of human
sexuality.
Aristophanes (c.445-c.385 BCE): The Knights (complete in one file, English), [At MIT]
Aristophanes (c.445-c.385 BCE): The Knights,
[At Perseus, in English, with Greek text accessible]
Aristophanes (c.445-c.385 BCE): The Thesmophoriazusae (complete in one file, English), [At MIT]
Aristophanes (c.445-c.385 BCE): The Thesmophoriazusae,
[At Perseus, in English, with Greek text accessible]
Theocritus (c.320-c.260 BCE): Idylls 12 and 29 (trans. Edward Carpenter)
Idylls 5, 12, 26, 30 are all autobiographical. See also 13, and
23. The originator of pastoral or bucolic poetry. Idyll 12:30 describes a homosexual kissing contest at the Diocleia festival
at Megara.
Achilles Tatius (2nd C. CE): Women unfavourably compared with boy lovers.
Egypt, 2nd cent. CE, from Leucippe and Clitophon 2.37.5-9,
38.1-3. G [At UKY]
From a debate between defenders of heterosexual and homosexual
intercourse in one of the most popular ancient Greek novels.
Homosexuality in Historiography
Herodotus (c.490-c.425 BCE): Histories 1.135 Go here for beginning of text. [At Perseus, in English, with Greek text
accessible]
On Persian pederasty as borrowed from the Greeks.
Xenophon (c.428-c.354 BCE): Anabasis 7.4.7,
Go here for beginning of text. [At Perseus, in English, with Greek text
accessible]
On Episthenes and a boy.
Xenophon (c.428-c.354 BCE): Cyropeadia 7.1.30,
Go here for beginning of text. [At Perseus, in English, with Greek text
accessible]
On the value of comrades and lovers in battle. See also Anabasis 1.8.25, Anabasis 1.9.31 for accounts of Cyrus' friends dying with him.
Xenophon (c.428-c.354 BCE): Memorabilia 2.6.28 Go here for beginning of text. [At Perseus, in English, with Greek text
accessible]
Socrates' description of himself as "experienced in the pursuit
of men". In 1.3.12 he describes the effect of love on him.
Xenophon (c.428-c.354 BCE): Symposium 8,
Go here for beginning of text. [At Perseus, in English, with Greek text
accessible]
Section 8 begins an extended discussion of love, primarily homosexual.
Xenophon (c.428-c.354 BCE): Constitution of Sparta, 2:13.
Go here for beginning of text. [At Perseus, in English, with Greek text
accessible]
On Spartan homosexuality. The whole of Const.Sparta
2 is about the education of Spartan youths is of interest.
Aeschines (c.390-c.322 BCE): Against Timarchus (complete in one file, English)
A legal brief delivered by Aeschines against a political opponent.
It is among the most revealing of all texts on Greek attitudes
to homosexuality.
Aeschines (c.390-c.322 BCE): Against Timarchus,
[At Perseus, in English, with Greek text accessible]
Timaeus of Tauromenium (c.356-260 BCE): History of Sicily
Discusses pederasty among the "Tyrrhenians". He specifically
states that neither "active" nor "passive"
sex was considered objectionable.
Strabo (64 BCE-after 24CE): Geography 10.4.20-21 - Go here for beginning of text. [At Perseus, in English, with Greek text
accessible]
Quoting Ephoros on Cretan homosexuality and rituals.
Plutarch (46-120 CE): Life of Pelopidas,
(complete) [At Virginia Tech]
Plutarch (46-120 CE): Life of Solon,
[At Perseus, in English, with Greek text accessible]
[1.3] explains how Solon forbade pederasty to slaves. [1.4] discusses
Peistratus' lover Charmus.
Plutarch (46-120 CE): Life of Lycurgus (complete) [At Virginia Tech]
An important text for Spartan pederasty and sexual life in general..
Plutarch (46-120 CE): Life of Alexander,
(complete) [At Virginia Tech]
An account of Alexander's life which makes clear his intimacy
with Hephasteion. Alexander's favourite Bagoas is also describes,
including a famous scene in which Alexander was called on by a
crowd to kiss Bagoas in public. He did.
Plutarch (46-120 CE): Parallel Lives,
(complete in English) [At Virginia Tech]
Plutarch (46-120 CE): Erotic Essay, esp. #5
Although Plutarch discusses without any horror homosexual lover
in his Lives, here he is opposed to pederasty.
Pausanias (c. 160 CE): Description of Greece 1.30.1 Go here for beginning of text. [At Perseus, in English, with Greek text
accessible]
The story of Timagoras and Meles and the altar of Love built by
Charmus. Refers to love between Athenian citizens and metics (resident
aliens).
Pausanias (c. 160 CE): Description of Greece 9.23.1 [At Perseus]
On the hero-shrine of Iolaus at Thebes. Cf. Pindar: Olympian Odes
7:84 and Scholia.
Pseudo-Apollodorus (2nd C. CE: Library 3.5.5. [At Perseus, in English, with Greek text accessible]
On the Abduction of Chrysippus by King Laïus of Thebes, sometimes
said to have "invented" pederesty.
Athenaeus (c. 200 CE): The Deipnosophists,
Book 13:601-606
The report of a Roman dinner party, in fact a weaving together
of anecdotes, it includes a wealth of gossip about homosexuals
in antiquity.
The Greek World of Mary Renault [At WWU]
Renault was a lesbian writer who produced a series of splendid
novels about ancient Greek male homosexuality. This site provides
synopses, character lists [keyed to Perseus], pictures and links
for each of these novels. Not exactly "history", but
very useful for historians.
Christina S. Kraus: Sussman: Declamations of Calpurnius Flaccus [Review at Bryn Mawr Reviews] Lewis A. Sussman: The
Declamations of Calpurnius Flaccus. Text, Translation, and
Commentary. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994
David Meadows: Eyben: Restless Youth [Review at Bryn Mawr Reviews] Emiel Eyben. Restless
Youth in Ancient Rome. London: Routledge, 1993.
Wade Richardson: Panayotakis, Theatrum Arbitri [Review at Bryn Mawr Reviews] Costas Panayotakis, Theatrum
Arbitri: Theatrical Elements in the Satyrica of Petronius.
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995.
D. Potter: Treggiari, Susan: Roman Marriage (D. Potter) [Review
at Bryn Mawr Reviews] Susan Treggiari. Roman Marriage.
Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the time of Ulpian.
Oxford University Press. Oxford, 1991.
Jeanne Neumann O'Neill: Mulroy, Horace's Odes and Epodes [Review at Bryn Mawr Reviews] David Mulroy, Horace's
Odes and Epodes. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
1994
T. Corey Brennan: Brooten, Bernardette: Love Between Women[Review
at Bryn Mawr Reviews] Brooten, Bernadette J., Love between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism, (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1996)
Ovid (43BCE-17CE): Metamorphoses 9:666-797
The story of Iphis and Ianthe. One of the most important Roman
presentations of lesbianism, but somewhat problematic in its details.
Ovid (43 BCE-17CE): Metamorphoses 10 (excerpts)
Male gods who love male humans: Zeus and Ganymede, Apollo and
Hyacinth.
Ovid (43 BCE-17CE): Metamorphoses full text of Dryden translation, [At Virginia Tech]
Ovid (43 BCE-17CE): Amores,
selections, trans. John Porter, [At Univ. of Saskatechewan]
Ovid (43 BCE-17CE): Art of Love esp. 2. 663-746 and 3.769-812.
Generally about heterosexual love, but with specific comparisons
with the love of youths.
Virgil (70-19 BCE): Aeneid 9 [At EWAC]
Virgil tells of the heroic deaths of the lovers Nisus and Euralus.
Virgil (70-19 BCE): Eclogues,
Complete. In English, trans. Dryden] [At Virginia Tech]. Another
version in HTML is available [At UMD]
See especially Eclogue II -On Corydon and Alexis. Love, not just sex, is the issue here. Also see Eclogue VII.
Virgil (70-19 BCE): Eclogues Complete, In Latin [At intellinet.com]
Juvenal (early 2nd C. CE): Satire IX,
[At Classics Homepage. In Latin]
On male hustlers.
Lucian (c.115-189 CE) [writes in Greek]: Toxaris A dialogue between a Greek and a Scythian about customs of
"philia" (friendship). The text is of major interest
in assessing the play of same-sex "friendship" in the
history of sexuality. While sexual activity is not made the focus, desire for the "friend" is a focal concern.
Lucian (c.115-189 CE) [writes in Greek]: Charidemus A discussion of the nature of beauty - of males.
Lucian (c.115-189 CE) [writes in Greek]: Dialogue of the Courtesans 5
An important discussion of Lesbianism.
Ps.-Lucian (Lucian c.115-180 CE) [writes in Greek]: The History of Orestes and Pylades,
from Amores or Affairs of the Heart
Although there has been a recent emphasis on the age-dissonant
and time-limited nature of Greek homosexual relationships, Orestes
and Pylades were presented as models for reciprocal and lasting
eros.
Texts: Historical
Polybius (c.200-after 118 BCE) [writes in Greek]: Histories VI: 37.9
Cicero (106-43 BCE): Second Philippic Against Anthony 18
Cicero (106-43 BCE): Laelius, or on Friendship [At CMU]
Livy (59 BCE-17 CE): Histories 8: 28
Livy's account of the homosexual affair in 428 AUC/326 BCE which
led to the abolition of imprisonment for debt in Rome. A creditor
tried to force a debtor to have sex with him and this enraged
the public.
Soranus (2nd. C. CE) [wrote in Greek], On Pathics,
as summarized in Caelius Aurelianus: On Acute Diseases and
on Chronic Diseases IV.9.131-137
Vern Bullough thought this passage a counter to the apparent proliferation
of homosexuality in other literature since it seeks to counter
doubts that "passive" homosexuals exist. Its interest
is much wider, as Soranus presents his opinion that passive homosexuality,
and lesbianism, is a "disease of the mind" and hereditary.
There is no area of discussion about homosexuality which is more
contentious than the interrelationship of Christianity and homosexuality.
The whole issue is irretrievably bound up with modern concerns
because of Christianity's continued importance. On one hand there
are conservative Christians who insist that modern Christian hostility
to gays has a continuous tradition and that this is a good thing.
On another hand the notion that Christianity caused homophobia
was very important to early gay scholars working to explain gay
oppression. But it has also turned out to be the case, in the
United States at least, that the phenomenon of gay churches has
been so successful that in almost every area they are the largest
GLB organizations. LGB Christians have been unwilling to surrender
the comforts of their faith and LGB Christian scholars, seeking
to find a space for themselves in their past have challenged the
orthodoxies of both conservative Christians and radical gays.
There is no doubt that Christian writers in every century have
voiced criticism, sometimes virulent and obscene criticism, of
homosexual activity and of "homosexuals" or other gender
transgressive groups. The counter to this has not been to deny
such voices, but to seek for more positive aspects of Christian
history. And there is little doubt that this positive history
also exists: even in the virulently anti-homosexual polemic of
John Chrysostom, for instance, one finds evidence of entire Christian
communities [in Antioch] which were unworried about homosexuality.
Even the Bible itself, it turns out, contains "pro-gay"
texts.
How much one reads such discussions as "history" and
how much as modern theological discussion is an interesting question.
The discussion is now, however, moving beyond these fairly fixed
positions. There is now increasing exploration of gender, both
homosexual and heterosexual, as an important metaphor in Christian
discourse. The person of Christ, a forgiving deity, who bleeds
in order to nourish, and whose body is quite literally penetrated
on the cross often ends up being described in a variety of "queer"
ways: as a mother hen, as a eunuch, as a lover. When Christian
writers tried to discuss female sanctity, they repeatedly end
up by transgendering, or "queering" as a modern literary
"theorist" might say, the holy woman in question: there
is no higher praise for a Christian saint than that she has a
"male soul in a female body", as Gregory of Nyssa says
about his sister Makrina. Startling indeed to those who recognize
this as a term for modern lesbianism. And when Christian authors
tried to make sense of males in love with a male God, they end
up asserting that the male soul is feminine (as indeed it is grammatically
in both Greek and Latin), and that it is penetrated by God to
bring forth the child of salvation.
These sorts of discussions are not comfortable for either religious
conservatives, gay radicals, or even gay Christians looking for
gay ancestors. What the discussions are doing is opening up new
pathways to an appreciation of the "queerness" of the
world's most popular religion.
All the Eunuchs of the Bible,
[At Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Catholic Handbook]
There is some evidence that the major sexual minority of
Biblical times was eunuchs - yet on the whole the Bible is pro-
eunuch, It certainly has a lot of them.
Texts: Patristic
The Didache (1st C. CE), or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, [At
American U.]
One of the earliest Christian texts to condemn pederasty
The Secret Gospel of Mark
References, and some of the text, of this "special edition"
of The Gospel of Mark were included in a letter of Clement of
Alexandria. Some have argued that the text is witness to intense
homoeroticism among early Christians, including - controversially
- Jesus.
Letter of Barnabus,
[At American U.]
Chapter 10 attempts a "spiritual" explanation of the
food codes of the Mosaic Law. It connects the forbidding of hares
with a prohibition against "unnatural lusts", apparently,
according to John Boswell, because the hare was supposed to grow
a new anus each year.
Apocalypse of Peter [1st half
2nd C.]
Discusses male and female homosexuals being
tortured in Hell.
Acts of Thomas excerpts, [Early
3rd C.]. The full text is available at the Non-Canonical Homepage
Discusses male and female homosexuals being tortured in Hell.
Apocalypse of Paul [Also known
as the Vision of Paul] [3rd C.]
Discusses male and female homosexuals being tortured in Hell.
Conciliar Legislation
Passion of SS. Sergius and Bacchus (3rd C. CE) [At CMU]
The story of the martyrdom of two soldier saints. In this version,
the earliest, they are clearly indicated as emotionally tied.
In the later "Metaphrastic" version they are referred
to as erotic "lovers"
Church Fathers on Gender Variance,
[At Gallae Page At Azstarnet]
This is an interesting compilation of comments, especially from
Tatian, on gender variance. Unfortunately no citations are given.
Moreover, the page is devoted to showing Christian hostility to
gender variance, but the historical reality was considerably more
complex. There is an interesting reference to Lesbian marriage
as well!
Clement of Alexandria (d.c.215 CE): Paidogogus 2:10 - On Hares, Hyenas and Homosexuality
Unfortunately the most interesting parts here are in Latin.
Clement of Alexandria (d.c.215 CE): Paidogogus 3:3 - On Effeminate Men and Masculine Women
A very interesting text which includes some suggestion of Lesbian
marriage in Egypt.
Clement of Alexandria (d.c.215 CE): Paidogogus 3:4 - On Women and Effeminate Men
Clement seems to describe "fag-hags" in the Third century.
Clement of Alexandria (d.c.215 CE): Paidogogus 3:5 - On Behavior in Bathhouses
Clement of Alexandria (d.c.215 CE): Stromateis 4:8 - On Equality and Inequality of the Sexes
The "effeminates" are lower than men and women.
St. Paulinus of Nola (353-431 CE): To Ausonius
A beautiful love poem by Paulinus.
St. Augustine (354-430 CE): from the Confessions
On his relationship with another man.
St. Augustine (354-430 CE): Confessions,
(full text) [At Wheaton College]
St. Augustine (354-430 CE): Confessions,
(full text - more modern translation) [At Medieval Sourcebook]
St. Jerome (c.347-420 CE), Letter LV,
[At Wheaton College]
A woman may not divorce her husband on account of his vices, even
if he is a sodomite!
One of the oddities Byzantine studies is that it has long attracted
homosexual scholars, but virtually none of them have written about
Byzantine homosexuality. There may be reason for this - in comparison
with the mass of information about Ancient Greek and Roman homosexuality,
the thousand years of Byzantine culture is poorly served. Entire
classical genres disappeared - plays, satires, secular philosophy.
There has been, instead, a legal tradition to explore; rather
a lot of monastic regulation; and the occasional comments in elite
historiography on homosexual activity by some emperors. John Boswell's Same Sex Unions rather surprisingly (to Byzantinists at
least) for a time has made Byzantine liturgical manuscripts a
focus of much interest.
But there is considerable room for further exploration. A number
of saints lives reveal diverse opinions, and relatively little
shock, about homosexuality (usually "andromania" in
these sources), but they have not been fully exploited. Some saints
lives also discuss homoerotic pairings with little comment. Although
certainly not sexually active, it is also common to find Byzantine
saints paired with each other in relationships which can be analyzed
from the perspective of desire - "friendship" hardly
begins to describe what they are about.
Other texts which may yield more are the small number of Byzantine
romances now coming under increased scrutiny. It may be thought
that hey are about "heterosexuality", but much current
scholarship in western literature suggests that this will not
be a satisfactory way in which to evaluate them.
Byzantium also supported an important sexual category not common
in modern life - the eunuchs who rose to prominence in Church
and state. There was even a monastery specifically for eunuchs.
Comments on this group, as with any liminal group, help explain
a society's gender expectations.
Finally, it cannot be overlooked that ancient texts tend to survive
in Byzantine made copies. Which texts were copied, how often,
and where are all answerable questions which may yield insight
into Byzantine mores. While they did not write much homoerotic
literature, they did copy it and, presumably, read it. Why?
Mikhail Min: On Homosexuality [At CoptNet]
A remarkably misinformed discussion of homosexuality in Coptic
thought, but useful enough for its patristic references. Its discussion
of "sodomy" should entertain anyone who has read Mark
Jordan's book on the subject.
John Chrysostom (d. 407 CE): Against the Opponents of Monastic Life 3
No friend of homosexuals, Chrysostom nevertheless reveals apparent
acceptance of homosexual activity among Antiochene Christians.
Procopius (c.500- d. after 562 CE): The Secret History, (complete text) [At Medieval Sourcebook]
Includes a sympathetic account of Justinian's attacks on homosexuals
John Malalas: World History 18:18,
(excerpt)
On two bishops tortured for homosexual activity
John Nesteutes ("the Faster") (d.595 CE): Penitential,
Migne PG 88, 1893C
Distinguishes between three kinds of homosexual acts - giving,
getting, doing both. Unlike ancient Greek views, it was more acceptable
to be "passive".
Theodore of Studium (late 8th/early 9th C. CE): Reform Rules, [At Medieval Sourcebook]
Arethas: Scholia Apparently Arethas was the first to use "Lesbian"
in its modern sense (although Lucian did connect female homosexuality
with the island).
Chin Bratotvoreniyu [At QRD]
Old Church Slavonic text of the Rite of Brotherhood, abbreviated,
with standard liturgical prayers (most of Litany, Antiphons, etc.)
omitted. Cf. Jacobus Goar, Euchologion (1st ed., Paris 1647; 2nd
ed., Venice 1730), pp. 706-709, s.v. "Akolouthia eis Adelphopoiian
Pneumatiken." From: Velikii Potrebnik, printed by Edinovertsii
in Moscow (Now called Belokrinitsky Hierarchy of Old Rite), in
the year 1904. Transcribed by Nikita Syrnikov. Translated by Fr.
Basil Isaacks April 1, 1995.
Roz Moz
This is a site on modern Greek Gays and Lesbians. Extensive bibliographical
guides.
Kalliarda: The Gay Greek Dialect [At Roz Moz]
Not clear how far back this patois goes back. It contains between
3000-5000 words. This site contains examples, and .WAV files and
is based on Elias' Petropoulos, Kaliarda, an Etymological Dictionary
of Greek Homosexuals' Slang, (Athens: Nefeli, Athens, 1980)
Mediev-l List: Was Richard the Lionheart "Gay"?: An Internet Discussion
Discussion: Paul Halsall et al.: Braveheart: The "Inning" of Piers Gaveston
On Pierre Chaplais' book, which claimed that Edward II and Gaveston
were "adoptive brothers".
Keith Busby: John Baldwin, The Language of Sex [Review at Bryn Mawr Reviews] John W. Baldwin. The Language
of Sex: Five Voices from Northern France around 1200. Chicago:
Chicago Univ. Press, 1994.
Elaine E. Whitaker: Gender Rhetorics [Review at Bryn Mawr Reviews] Gender Rhetorics: Postures
of Dominance and Submission in History. Ed. Richard C. Trexler.
Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 113. Binghamton, NY:
CEMERS, 1994.
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen: Feminist Approaches to the Body [Review at Bryn Mawr Reviews] Feminist Approaches to
the Body in Medieval Literature, edited by Linda Lomperis
and Sarah Stanbury. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
1993.
Alison Taufer: Louise Mirrer: Women, Jews, and Muslims ... Reconquest Castile[Review
at Bryn Mawr Reviews] Louise Mirrer, Women, Jews, and
Muslims in the Texts of Reconquest Castile. Series: Studies
in Medieval and Early Modern Civilization. Ann Arbor: University
of Michigan Press, 1996
Paul Pascal: Gaisser: Catullus and His Renaissance Readers [Review at Bryn Mawr Reviews] Julia Haig Gaisser. Catullus
and His Renaissance Readers. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1993
On the reconstruction of Catullus' text after its medieval mauling.
Penelope Rainey: Walsh, ed.: Love Lyrics from the Carmina Burana [Review at Bryn Mawr Reviews] P.G. Walsh (ed.), Love
Lyrics from the Carmina Burana. Chapel Hill: The University
of North Carolina Press, l993.
Michael Rocke: Forbidden Friendships - summary [At OUP]
Short summary of Rocke's important book on sexuality in Renaissance
Florence.
Texts: Religious
St. Benedict (late 5th C.): Rule, Chapter 22 [At OSB]
Sleeping arrangements for monks: part of the rationale was to
prevent sexual activity.
Rudolf of Fulda: Life of St. Leoba (8th Cent) Chapters on the 28 on passionate friendship between St. Leoba and Queen Hiltigard, one of Charlemagne's wives.
Burchard of Worms (c.1012): Penitential, [Migne PL
140], Bk. 19.5
Islam was the last of the great world cultures to emerge. With
regard to homosexuality there are polar contrasts. On the one
hand The Qur'an seems to condemn homosexuality unequivocally,
on the other Muslim societies have shown a great deal of tolerance.
From the sexually explicit poems of Al-Andulus [Muslim Spain],
to the sexual comedy of The Arabian Nights, to the ecstatic
loving of Sufi mystics, to modern Morocco and Tunisia - the Islamic
world looked benevolently on men who love [usually younger] men.
In India, according to Richard Burton, it was among Muslims, not
Hindus, that homosexual eros was most accepted.
The first thing to note is that in some respects Islam has been
the most sex-positive of the great world religions: the Christ
and the Buddha were both sexually abstinent, but Muhammad was
sexually active with a number of wives, and had children. Sex
itself was not a bad thing, nor was abstinence desirable.
This sex-positivity of Islam is a starting point for further consideration.
So far, until very recently at least, research does not seem to
have gone beyond the basics, nor to have escaped the colonialist
gaze. The situation is likely to change.
Discussions:
Richard Burton: Terminal Essay,
from his edition of the Arabian Nights.
Burton' compilation of data on variety of societies was meant
to explain some of the stories in The Nights. In doing
so, he provided first overview of Islamic homosexuality.
Edward Carpenter (1884-1929): Iolaus: An Anthology of Friendship [chapter on Arabia and Persia], with extracts from Rumi, Hafiz and Saadi.
Islam and Homosexuality [At Islam Homepage]
An extremely homophobic article which claims Islam never tolerated
homosexuality.
Fred Rosen: Sex Ethics in the Writings of Moses Maimonides (1994) [At Aronson.com]
This is, sadly, just basic information about Rosen's book, which
translates Maimonides' writings, inter alia, on homosexuality
and lesbianism.
A. L. De Silva: Homosexuality and Theravada Buddhism [At BuddhaZine]
De Silva discusses the prohibitions for monks in the Vinaya,
the figure of the pandaka in the early texts and the application
of these texts to lay people.
Robert Aitken: Gay marriage from a Buddhist perspective [At OutNow]
Aitken is an important figure in American Zen. His discussion
here is mainly directed at modern concerns, but he discusses the
history.
Chris Berry: Queer Film in East Asia, Australian Humanities Review, July 1996 [At latrobe.edu.au]
Manifesto of 1996 Chinese Tongzhi Conference [At HKGAY]
"Tongzhi" is being used in Chinese for Gay. This manifesto
directly asserts a historical basis for modern Chinese homosexuals
and the differences of Chinese Tongzhi movements with western
gay movements.
It has proved to be extraordinarily difficult to find much infromation
about South Asian homosexuality. Some relevant documents are under
"Islam", (including Richard Burton's Terminal Essay,
in which he claims that homosexual activity was common in Indo-Muslim
culture but not Hindu cultures). See also the Buddhist references
collected under "China and Japan).
Discussions:
Anwar Sheikh: Mysticism: The Vedic Legacy [At Anet-dfw.com]
Sheikh is mainly trying to show that Sufism is an outgrowth of
Hinduism, but in doing so he addresses the importance of homoeroticism
in mystic thought.
Vatsyayana: Kama Sutra, Part 2. Chap 9,
1883 trans. by Richard Burton. [At Bibliomania.com]
On "Mouth Congress" and "different types of eunuchs".
The Vinaya [Buddhist Monastic Precepts]
Websites:
Shri Krishna as Kali and Lalita [At Hubcom.com]
Although the sexual relationships of Indian gods often follow
heterosexual expectations, the individual God/dess may change
form and be incarnate as another. This story could be read as
gay, lesbian, or multiply transgendered.
Tantrik Links [At Hubcom.com]
Tantricism was the "short path" to Enlightenment in
Hinduism and Buddhism. Sexual ecstasy was a particularly important
feature, often represented by heterosexual "yab-yum"
figures.
There are modern "Gay American Indians" whose self-definition
seems pretty much the same as other gay and lesbian Americans.
What is of interest in this section is the tradition in many different
Native American societies of socially validated gender-divergent
roles. Some groups essentially allowed children to choose their
gender. A male child who chose female clothes, for instance, would
be raised as a female, and would marry man. In some societies
analogous roles were open to female children. The general term
for these individuals is "berdache" - a colonialist
French word, derived from Persian, - but which has retained its
utility give the great variety of Native American terms for the
practice.
Some writers have objected to what they see as the appropriation
of the "berdache" by modern gay people, and by writers
such as Will Roscoe (whose books are probably the most widely
read on the subject). While this complaint has some justification,
it could be made about any past group seen as relevant to the
history of "homosexuality" but where the societal definition
was in terms of gender-identity rather than sexual orientation.
Jody Greene: The Traffic In Men, review of Richard Trexler, Sex and Conquest: Gendered
Violence, Political Order, and the Conquest of the Americas [At The BOOKPRESS February, 1996]
The great distinction between "modern" and "ancient
and medieval" history lies in the quantity of available sources.
In pre-modern culture we rely primarily on literary and legal
sources to understand homosexuality. Both types of source are
highly distorting. Although we can - with care - outline the contours
of some "homosexual" subcultures in pre-modern societies,
such efforts always remain tentative.
From the late fifteenth century in Europe this all changes. Large
amounts of source material begins to survive, and new sorts of
material at that. Most important are court records - especially
when full trial records remain. So great are the survivals in
some Italian cities that statistical surveys of the data are possible
(for which see the work of Michael Rocke and Guido Ruggiero in
the bibliography). The sources are not perfect, but now a social
history is possible.
Real progress has been made for some parts of Europe - especially
Italy. Other areas remain less well investigated. But debates
are now flourishing about what exactly was the social "identity"
of homosexually active men (there is still not enough evidence
to document Lesbian subcultures until much later than for males).
At the same time, the types of "homosexual source" we
have for previous societies continued to be produced. Plays and
poems are less central to our conception of homosexuality in this
period, but they remain important. Especially because we now have
evidence about audience and styles/occasions of performance, socially
significant inferences can be made. This data cannot be disgarded.
Documents of Early Modern Queer History [At Rictor Norton's website]
[Rictor Norton has informed me that "During the coming few months I hope to add pages on various broadside ballads, satires and trials, e.g. John Dunton's The He-Strumpets, 1710; The State of Rome, 1739; Love in the Suds, 1772; excerpts from Sodom and Onan; a molly trial of 1709; a molly trial of 1707; A Sapphick Epistle, 1777; the Latin Epitaph on Bob Jones, 1773; A Dialogue Concerning Venus, 1691, and Jenny Cromwell's Complaint Against Sodomy, 1690s."]
Montaigne: A Homosexual Marriage in Rome, [At Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Catholic Handbook].
Account of a gay marriage in 16th-century Rome by Montaigne.
Jeremy Bentham: "Offences Against One's Self" (c. 1785) [Full text] [At Columbia U.] Bentham's work was one of the earliest modern ethical texts in favor of the rights of homosexuals. The treatise examines the question of what, if any, legal sanctions should be applied against homosexuality.
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895): The Riddle of Man-Manly Love [This is a link to a notice about a translation of the book --
by the first "modern homosexual". ]
John Addington Symonds (1840-1893): A Problem in Modern Ethics (London: 1896)
John Francis Bloxam: Story: The Priest and the Acolyte,
1894
An extraordinary short story which combines high ritualism, saccharin
melodrama, and a quite specific plea for acceptance of difference.
Fr. Faber:
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889): Select Poetry [At U. Toronto]
A gay Jesuit priest and poet. See "Felix Randell" and
"The Bugler Boy's First Communion".
Vincent Bui: Literrature:
French Homosexual Literature [At ensta.fr]
extracts from Racine, Anouilh, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Yourcenar and
others. [In French]
Famous British Paedophiles [At Hkstar]
I am not very happy about this site - which addresses both heterosexual
and homosexual pedophilia - but it does contain picture and information
on a number of 19th and early 20th century figures.
Sigmund Freud: Letter to a Mother
Although the psychoanalytic movement in the US became a major
victimizer of homosexuals [through its dedication to the notion
of ego-normality], Freud himself, as in this letter to the mother
of a homosexual, was much more approving.
Schwules Museum Berlin/Akademie der Künste [The Gay Museum/The
Academy of Arts] Goodbye to Berlin? HUNDERT JAHRE SCHWULENBEWEGUNG - 100 YEARS OF GAY LIBERATION -
CENTENAIRE DU MOUVEMENT GAI [At www.adk.de]
An exhibition celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the
founding of the TheWissenschaftliche-humanitäre Komitee (Scientific
Humanitarian Committee) in May 1897 in Berlin. There are English
and German versions of the site.
At one time it was fashionable to claim that the Nazis accepted
homosexuality. Partly this was a way to slur the Nazis [as if
they need slurring], and partly a reflection of the suppressed
homoeroticism of Nazi visual expression. What was overlooked until
the 1970s, and the publication of a series of articles by James
Steakley in the Toronto Body Politic (quite possibly the best
bi-weekly ever produced by the modern gay community), was that the Nazis
had directed laws, prisons, and the full panoply of the state
against homosexuals; had deliberately destroyed the sex research
institute set up by Magnus Hirschfeld; and added homosexuals to
the list of those to be eliminated. In other words the world managed
to "forget" the holocaust of homosexuals.
In recent years this forgetting has been overcome. Thanks to the
efforts of Steakley, Richard Plant and Burchhard Jellonek, as
well as the publication by Hans Heger [pseud.] of his memoirs,
and the play Bent by Martin Shaw, the suffering of gays
under the Third Reich has become well known. Now the Holocaust
Museum in Washington DC makes sure to explicate the issues involved.
The total number of gays killed seems to have been about 15,000
[figures from Jellonek], mostly by being worked to death. Gays
were not sent as gays to extermination camps. This is massively
smaller than the devastation visited on Jewish, Gypsy and Serbian
populations. But documenting the Nazi attacks on homosexuals is
not part of a "catch-up" game with Jews, or other groups.
It is rather an exposing of the possible effects of dehumanizing
any group.
Recently some members of the American Religious Right [a diverse
group that should no more be demonized than any other], have taken
to denying the gay holocaust, and in fact asserting that the Nazi
part was essentially homosexual. This is nonsense, and not one
serious historian countenances the charge. Nevertheless the book
- The Pink Swastika - which makes this charge has been subjected
to a line by line refutation, available via here.
Discussions:
James Steakley: Homosexuals and the Third Reich, The Body Politic 11, January/February 1974, [At Carleton]
This was the first important article to discuss the Nazi attack on gays.
Night of the Long Knives. june 30, 1934, [At HistoryPlace]
An account of Hitler's attack ond, and removal of Roehm, the SA leader who was homosexual.
See also the Table of Contents and homophobic introduction to the book The Pink Swastika discussed by Professor Mueller. . [At Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual
Catholic Handbook]
Scott Lively/Kevin Abrams: The Pink Swastika [At earthlink.net]
This is an example of a Radical Religious Right to claim that
that Nazi party was "homosexual". The book is a lie,
but, since truth is not afraid, I provide an online link to it.
A condensed version is also available [At QRD]
Eugene Narrett: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF NAZISM,
from The Wanderer, August 8, 1996
An example of the way the Lively/Abrams book is popularized by
the Radical Religious Reich press. This is from the extreme right
ring Catholic paper The Wanderer, owned by Paul Weyrich.
This article is classcic case of Weyrich's evil. It describes
the deaths by working to death of circa 6000 gay men, and then
seeks to account for the Nazi's "leniency" by arguing
that leading Nazis were gay. A truly sick approach. Fortunately
only imbeciles read the Wanderer.
Citizens Allied for Civic Action (CAFCA): THE ANNOTATED PINK SWASTIKA [At QRD], Alternative site [At U.Chicago]
Extensive [600 Kbyte] point by point refutation of the Lively/Abrams
book. The effort is worthwhile, but it should be noted that no
serious historian takes the Lively/Abrams book seriously as anything
other than evidence about the modern American far right [a phenomenon
of serious historical interest.]
Texts:
The Nazi Marking/Idenification System [At HistoryPlace]
This page contains a reproduction of an original document illustrating the various types of triangles/markings assigned to different categories of prisoner.
Hans Heger [pseud.]: Daily Life in a Camp,
from The Men with the Pink Triangles. [At CMU]
(Note: Heger is the name of the journalist who wrote the book.
The "hero" of the book remains anonymous). See here for a picture of prisoners in Sachsenhausen wearing Triangle badges. [It is not possible to see which color]
Christopher Isherwood: Mr. Norris Changes Trains,
extracts. [At Island.net]
Isherwood, the most well-known English writer on Interwar Berlin
describes the atmosphere in Germany.
Eugene Kogon:
Websites:
The Pink Triangle Page by Scott Safier at CMU.
An excellent collection of carefully document sources and discussions.
Paul Baker: Researching Polari, Scan [Lancaster University Student Mag.], Nov 15, 1996,
[At Lancs.ac.uk]
Discussions: InterWar Years
Frederick Luis Aldama: Lorca's Homographic Poetics of Nationalism,
a paper presented at the (DIS)PLACING NATIONALISM CONFERENCE,
UC Irvine, 18 May 1996 [At intersource.com]
Cabaret Home Page [At Sure.net]
CSUN Department of Theatre Presents Berlin between the wars at
the height of decadence and change
Discussions: Entire Period since WWII
Edmund White: on Jean Genet: Once a Sodomite: Twice a Philosopher, Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review 3:1 (Winter 1996) [At Harvard
Gay and Lesbian Review]
Mark Finch: Victim Victorious?, City Limits (London), November 1985, [At Planet Out]
Reviews the history of gay film in the UK.
Hart Murphy: FOUCAULT'S VIRTUAL PASSION [At www.ctheory.com]
Review of James Miller, The Passion of Michel Foucault.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993. Pb: Anchor Doubleday, 1994.
Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986):
Alfred Corn: I Am a Diary, The Nation 02/10/97, [At The Nation]
Review of Diaries, Volume One: 19391960. By Christopher
Isherwood.
W.H.: Auden (1907-1973): Poems W. H. Auden Page [At www.lit.kobe-u.ac.jp]
Roger Schultz: A Celebration of Infidels:
The American Enlightenment in the Revolutionary Era, Contra
Mundum No. 1 Fall 1991
Contra Mundum is a conservative Calvinist magazine. This article
points out the Christian framework of much of colonial society,
including its sex laws.
Duane E. Jennings: Book Review: Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon
Example, by D. Michael Quinn, University of Illinois Press,
[At ng.netgate.net/~jfirth]
Joseph Smith: Comfort for a Gay Lover 1843
The founder of Mormonism was not apparently anti-gay.
Joshua Speed: Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln:
Speed was Lincoln's bed-mate for a number of years. Male intimacy
was quite possible in the early 19th century without arising suspicions.
Texts: Literary
Herman Melville (1819-1891): Letters to Nathaniel Hawthorne [at www.melville.org]
Melville's most important emotional relationship seems to have
been with Hawthorne. In one letter he claims "your heart beat in my ribs and mine in yours,
and both in God's" -an idea of friendship that goes back
to Aristotle. The site has links to all Melville's works.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892): Leaves of Grass [At Columbia U.
Singing of the "body electric".
Walt Whitman (1819-1892): Leaves of Grass [At Virginia Tech]
With the advent of the twentieth century the nature of LGBT history
changes. As well as literature and court records, we now begin
to have access to considerable oral history and recollection.
Moreover the period since the late 19th century does indeed seem
to have been marked by an increased interest in homosexuality
by various elites - lawyers, doctors and a new arrival - "sexologists".
The current job of North American LGBT history involves, for a
great part, securing and writing down the oral histories before
the bearers disappear.
Discussions: Entire Period
Pierre J. Tremblay: The Homosexuality Factor in the Youth Suicide Problem [At netaxs.com]. There is another Mirror Version at QRD [At QRD]
An extended presentation at the Sixth Annual Conference of the
Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, Banff, Alberta, October
11-14, 1995, (c) Oct. It includes a historical overview of .gay
suicide 1930-1995
James Sears: Stonewall South [At www.conterra.com/jsears]
Brief history and timeline of Southern Lesbian and Gay history.
Henry L. Minton: Deconstructing Heterosexuality: Life Stories From Gay New York,1935-1941, History of Psychology Newsletter, Fall 1995, 27:3 [At Yorku.ca]
[Presidential address presented to Division 26 at the 103rd Annual
Convention of the American Psychological Association in
New York, New York, Saturday, August 12, 1995.]
David L. Kirp: Speak, Gay Memory, The Nation 7/15/96 [At The Nation]
Reviews of Young Man From the Provinces: A Gay Life Before
Stonewall By Alan Helmes, Midlife Queer: Autobiography
of a Decade, 1971-1981 By Martin Duberman, Truth Serum.
By Bernard Cooper.
Discussions: 1940s
Christopher Isherwood: Diaries: LA in the 1940s and 1950s [extracts, at sure.net] or at alternate site [At Buzz Mag]
"A decade after his death, the diaries of author Christopher
Isherwood paint a lush-and louche-portrait of literary high life
in L.A."
William Dubay: Homosexuality: What Kinsey Really Said [At McGill]
Alfred Kinsey's studies of human sexual behavior revolutionized
educated opinion I the 1950s. This article - favorable to Kinsey
- explains what he said.
Controversy over Kinsey's Research [At Indiana]
In Fall 1995 the right wing Family Research Council began a series
of attacks on Kinsey's research and the Kinsey Institute - attacks
which included making films/videos and attempts to defund the
institute. This page gives the Institutes response.
Mark Y. Herring: Review Article:
Phallacies and Other Lies: Freudian Fraud: The Malignant Effect
of Freud's Theory on American Thought and Culture, By E. Fuller
Torrey (New York, Ny: Harpercollins, 1992), Contra Mundum No. 9 Fall 1993 [At Contra Mundum] Contra Mundum is a conservative Calvinist magazine, but
not "looney". This article presents the criticisms made
by conservatives of Freud, as well as Kinsey and Margaret Mead.
The Moral Debate on Homosexuality [At dallas.net]
This is a link to an anti-gay page. The page is useful though:
first, People With a Story takes a stand
in favor of openness; second the page points to various right
wing articles criticizing the work and methodology of Alfred Kinsey
and Evelyn Hooker; third, the page does not point to any of the
Kinsey Institute's responses. This one-sidedness is typical of
the Radical Religious Right "scholarship" on homosexuality.
The article by on Evelyn Hooker by Thomas Landess, (cited as former
Academic Dean at the University of Dallas) is an especially good
example of weak analysis - it hilariously cites the discredited
Paul Campbell as an "analyst" on Hooker's work!.
Jim Kepner: The Women of ONE [At USC]
Kepner documents women involved in ONE, Inc and challenges the
notion that before the Daughters of Bilitis started (San Francisco
1955) thehomophile movement, as it was then known, was almost
entirely white-male, and the rare women participants were expected
to make coffee.."..
Harry Hay Profile [At QSanFrancisco]
Founder of the Mattachine Society and the Radical Faeries. Still
alive, but already a mythic figure.
Kate Brandt: Lisa Ben: A Lesbian Pioneer,
[At Qworld]
Lisa Ben was a pseudonymous author connected with the Daughters
of Bilitis
James T. Sears: Growing up as a Jewish Lesbian in South Florida:
Queer Teen Life in the Fifties, from Cultured Youth, ed.
Joe Austin (New York: NYU Press, 1997)
A complex account of the homophobia of the period.
James L. Bauman: Cold War Sources. Reviews in American History 23.4 (1995) 734-738 [At Johns
Hopkins]
Discusses inter alia the pro-Vietnam war columnist Joeseph Alsop,
who was queer.
Texts
The Kinsey Scale [At intranet.org]
Dr. Alfred Kinsey created a scale, graduated between heterosexuality
and homosexuality to rate individuals on actual experiences and
psychological reactions. It had a major effect on thought about
sexuality.
Homosexuals in Government, 1950. A brief, but very explicit, excerpt from the U.S. Congressional Record vol 96, part 4 [81st Congress 2nd Session March 29 -- April 24, 1950] [At UPenn]
Harry Hay: Our Own Faerie WayCrossroads 42, June 1994 [At Berkeley]
Harry Hay's recollections of the founding of the Mattachine Society,
and the importance of Radical Left politics in its creators' analysis
of society.
The Ninth Street Center
A web site devoted to the thought of Paul Rosenfels, a Chicago-based psychiatrist who, after breaking with psychoanalysis in the 1940's, developed his own ideas about human relationships. The Ninth Street Center was founded in 1973 to teach Rosenfel's Jungiinfluenced ideas. Rosenfels was, the page claims, the first American social scientist to defend homosexuality in print.
Christine Szikla: Lesbianism: Dispelling the Myths,
first appeared as "Public OpinionTowards The Lesbian",
Geelong Association of Students Inc. Women's Department Newsletter
#4, 1996. pp.12-14 [At WISE]
Biron: ADVOCATE: Capitalist Manifesto, GAY SUNSHINE (San Francisco, Spring.1976) [At photos-biron.com]
A gay liberationist critique of The Advocate, the biggest
and longest lasting American gay publication.
Michael Swift The Gay Revolutionary,from Gay Community News, Feb. 15-21, 1987
This text, printed in the Congressional Record is cited, apparently verbatim, by the religious right as evidence of the "Gay Agenda". But when they cite it they always omit, as does the CR, the vital preface, which sets the context for the piece. In other words, every other version of this found on the net is part of the radical right's great lie about gay people. (see the "Modern Homophobia" Section below for more on this).
Discussions: 1990s
Mariana Romo-Carmona: Civic Duty in the Age of Space ProbesCrossroads 42, June 1994 [At Berkeley]
Examines the complexities of the lesbian and gay population's
desire for acceptance into the mainstream.
Elizabeth Stroud: Our Cultural SupernovaCrossroads 42, June 1994 [At Berkeley]
On the conflict between radicalizing and mainstreaming in LGBT
organizing.
Howard Wallace: An Injury To OneCrossroads 42, June 1994 [At Berkeley]
On the need for workers of all colors to move to the forefront
of LGBT politics. See also the AFL-CIO on Stonewall in Crossroads 42, June 1994 [At Berkeley] - passed unanimously
October 6, 1993 at the 20th Constitutional Convention of the AFL-CIO
B.W. Cook: October Barry Goldwater [At orangecoast.com]
On Conservative icon Barry Goldwater's endorsement of gay rights
in the 1990s.
EGALE Canada (Equality For Gays & Lesbians Everywhere) [At Islandnet.com]
Canadian LGBT rights organization. The site includes a list of
significant Canadian legal cases.
Organizational Development
The development of a huge array of diverse LGBT organizations
- student, religious, social, cultural, political - is of prime
importance in understanding the creation and strengthening of
the LGBT movement since 1969. This has hardly been touched on
as an area of research. Often the groups are not long lived, or
not spectacular, nor even very radical. But their continued proliferation
and creation of social and communal threads is impressive. Many
of them have taken to documenting their own history on the web
- sometimes via time lines, other times via narratives.
Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington DC Homepage [At glaa.org]
GLAA is one of the oldest continuously active gay organization
in the United States. Founded on April 20, 1971, as the Gay Activists
Alliance Fighting for Equal Rights Since 1971 GLAA, an all-volunteer,
non-partisan, non-profit political organization, was founded in
1971 to advance the equal rights of gay men and lesbians. Its
homepage includes current affairs and historical information.
See especially the timeline.
GALA-ND/SMC! [At galandsmc.org]
Gay And Lesbian Alumni/ae of the University of Notre Dame and
Saint Mary's College. It includes an account of the enormous struggle
LGBTs at these Catholic colleges had to go through.
NENET Information Site [At Nenet]
NENET was The New England Network of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and
Trangender College Students from the Spring of 1993 until the
Spring of 1995.
Gerard Koskovich: History of Gays and Lesbians at Stanford:
From Passionate Friendship to Gay Liberation at Stanford 1891
1974 [At Stanford]
Text for an exhibit at Green Library, Stanford University, July-October
1994
Dignity at 25: Fr. Jim Mallon.
[At Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Catholic Handbook]
Philadelphia Gay News article on Dignity at 25, concentrating
on the witness of Fr. Jim Mallon.
Marvelous Persimon's Radical Faerie Homepage [at eskimo.com]
Inlcudes an informative FQA - "frequently questioned answers"
and a RF "hiss-tory". Links to other RF and gay pagan
sites.
Rocky O'Donovan: ECCE HOMO:
Ruminations on a Theology of My Queer Body [At www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/1942/ecce.html]
How the Mormon church dealt with a gay boy in the late 1970s.
Patrick J. Buchanan: Speech Republican National Convention in Houston, Texas, 1992 [At Buchanan.org]
Virulently homophobic [among other things] speech which helped
Bill Clinton win in 1992.
Bowers v. Hardwick June 30, 1996 [At QRD]
The US Supreme Court decision which upheld the legality of US
states' sodomy laws.
Romer Vs. Evans May 20, 1996 [At glaa.org]
The extremely important US Supreme Court decision, by Justic Anthony
Kennedy, which overturned the anti-gay Colorado 'Amendment 2'.
This decision, which incidentally sees the formal use of "gay"
and "lesbian" by the highest levels of the US government,
finally established the legal foundation for prohibition of anti-gay
bias. It specifically accepts that gays and lesbians are a social
group worthy of protection.
QRD Legal Page
For other legal decision texts, and commentary, see this regularly
updated page at QRD.
Texts: Literary
With the rise of the modern LGBT movement literature
by and about LGBT's has flourished as never before. Gay bookstores
now carry thousands of titles. But at the same time literature
has become less central to analyzing historical issues, since
so much other data is available. The texts below are ones texts
[and links to reviews] which have had an especially important
effect on the development of LGB culture.
James Baldwin: Giovanni's Room David Van Leer: "The Fire Last Time:
Review Essay on James Baldwin: A Biography by David Leeming", The New Republic February 13, 1995
Gay Liberation Front: Manifesto (London, 1971, as revised 1979)
Classic example of Gay Liberationist analysis. Parts of it still
read as provocative, other parts seem dated - for instance its
attack on "butch/femme" culture!
James Kirkup: The Love That Dares.
[At Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Catholic Handbook]
This poem, published in Gay News was [and is] banned in
Britain under the use of an ancient blasphemous libel law. The
banning was fought, unsuccessfully, all the way to the European
Court of Human Rights. Recently attempts have been made to prosecute
British websites which link to the American location of this poem,
where it is protected by the First Amendment (Thank you Mr. Madison!)..
The Alsop Review: Background Information on the Love That Dares [At Hooked.net]
This page contains British press reports of the closing down of
the LGCM website, and some obituaries of Denis Lemon, the editor
of Gay News and chief defendant. It also links to the poem
and to a picture of Kirkup.
Christopher N Kendall: Homophobia as an Issue of Sex Discrimination:
Lesbian and Gay Equality and the Systemic Effects of Forced Invisibility, E Law - Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, Vol
3, No 3 (September 1996) [At www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/]
Joshua Oppenheimer: "Movements, Markets, and the Mainstream:
AIDS politics, queer politics, and the gay and lesbian commercial
scenes", paper at Acting on Aids: Activism Conference,
ICA London, March 1996 [At ICA]
Thomas L. Long: AIDS and American Apocalypticism:
Discourse, Performance, and the Cultural Production of Meaning
in New York City, 1981-1996 [Dissertation] [At Long's Homepage]
Gabriel Rotello: Creating a New Gay Culture: Balancing Fidelity & Freedom, The Nation, 04/21/97 [At The Nation]
Rotello opposes sexual liberation in favor of a better "ecology".
Summarizes the political parts of his book Sexual Ecology.
Martin Duberman: Epidemic Arguments, The Nation 05/05/97 [At The Nation]
Review of Sexual Ecology: AIDS and the Destiny of Gay Men,
By Gabriel Rotello.
Duberman is respectful of Rotello, whose argument he summarizes,
but he also points to Rotello's conflation of historical data.
Jeanne Bergman: Saving Sex, The Nation 06/24/96 [At The Nation]
Review of Fatal Advice: How Safe-Sex Education Went Wrong. By Cindy Patton.
Gabriel Rotello: The Twilight of AIDS?The Nation 12/23/96 [At The Nation]
"New AIDS drugs and approaches offer hope -- but only for
some, and only in part." One get the impression that no news
could be good for Rotello.
ACT UP, which began in New York in Spring1987 is important as
part of AIDS history, lesbian and gay history, and the history
of medicine. For the first time the "victims: of a disease,
met with condescension and disdain by governmental and medical
establishment successfully organized a political and investigative
revolution. In the process ACT UP spun off chapters of its original
NY parent all around the globe, a whole series of radical practical
help organizations, and revitalized the radicalism of lesbian
and gay politics [even as, annoyingly, its largely lesbian and
gay members complained each time the NY Times referred to ACT
UP as a "gay organization"].
ACT UP achieved its goals [and it did achieve many of them]
through spectacular street theater and much hard backroom work.
It was quite common in the late eighties to see members slogging
away at research in the New York Public Library on a whole array
of subjects. It is not often realized that ACT UP's press releases
contained as much work as its graphics. Sometimes its tactics
shocked: but the shock of ACT UP gave it real power. It got a
voice at the table; it reduced health insurance costs; it made
needle exchange a viable policy; it transformed the way drugs
were assessed. In then end, ACT UP did save lives, even as thousands,
including hundreds of its own members, died
The history of ACT UP is only now being written: its archives
are with the NY Public Library and will be open for research.
There will be debates about who was important, and what, if anything,
went wrong. But it will be a shame if the sheer courage and bravery
of its members is ever overlooked. For all the toughness, for
all the beatings its members received from the police, no ACT
UP member resorted to violence. But more, in the 1980's, an age
when college kids around the United States asserted that their
highest goal was "to join a financial planning corporation",
ACT UP members demonstrated again and again that there is meaning
in human lives.
Daniel Teodoro Contreras: Confessions of a Queer Chicano Nationalist Abstract of a paper presented at the (DIS)PLACING NATIONALISM
CONFERENCE, UC Irvine, 18 May 1996, [At intersource.com]
Queers Read This/I Hate Straights June 1990, [At QRD].
Distributed by "Anonymous Queers" at the 1990 LG Pride
March in New York. It was distributed from the ACT UP float, by
ACT UP members acting without "floor" support, but soon
came to be associated with "Queer" politics.
Henry Louis Gates: Blacklash?, The New Yorker [Date?] [At CMU]
Examines the interconnections and differences between Black and
Lesbian/Gay/Bi movements.
American Civil Liberties Union Briefing Paper Number 18: LESBIAN AND GAY RIGHTS,
[At aclufl.org]
Texts: LGB History
Archive of Current Press Reports on LGBT Issues [At fc.net]
An subject-organized, and soon to be searchable, archive of full-text
press reports on current lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans* issues:
gays in the military; lesbian and gay marriage; legislation: religion
- it's all here. Mostly US, but some international coverage.
Jeff Vos: The Homosexual Threat, 1995 [Full text]Classic homophobic Mein Kampf (although this text is overtly anti-semitic, asserting that Jews are more neurotic than other groups, etc.).
William Donahue: Gays, Giuliani, and Catholics.
[At Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Catholic Handbook]
article from CRISIS magazine in which the head of the Catholic
League - he has an office next to Cardinal O'Connor - gives his
bigoted opinions about the annual NYC Lesbian and Gay Rights March.
Family Research Council Policy Papers [At FRC]
The FRC is a Radical Religious Right think-tank. It makes its
papers, speeches, etc. available on the net - a useful resource
for documenting modern homophobia.
IGLHRC On-line Resources
A really valuable list of central LGB information web sites around
the world. Many national groups maintain resource guides in English
as well as their national languages.
Gai Pied Archives [At www.gaipied.fr/gph/]
Full text of Gai Pied, the leading French gay magazine since 1986!
"The Gai Pied ARCHIVES give you an unprecedented access to
the complete set of Gai Pied Hebdo back numbers. At a click the
summaries, the articles and interviews, etc. You can research
by volume number, date and even by searching words in the fully
indexed articles.
Dennis Altman: On Global Queering [Australian Humanities Review]
With Responses from Gary Dowsett , Michael Tan, Donald Morton
, Christopher Lane, David Halperin and Fran Martin
Graham C Reed: ALUTA CONTINUA:
possible pedagogical strategies for combating homophobic and heterosexist
discourses in the South African education system, Rhodes University,
March/April 1996 [At www.ru.ac.za]
Seiichi M. Sunday: Tokyo's 1st Gay Parade,
from Outrageous Tokyo: Japan's English Language Gay magazine,
Nov 1994, [At shrine.cyber.ad.jp/~darrell/]
Manifesto of 1996 Chinese Tongzhi Conference [At HKGAY]
"Tongzhi" is being used in Chinese for Gay. This manifesto
directly asserts a historical basis for modern Chinese homosexuals
and the differences of Chinese Tongzhi movements with western
gay movements.
Russian Gay History by Kevin Moss, [At Middlebury]
Fairly developed site, with Russian gay links.
Lambda Istanbul
The Turkisk GLB group maintains an extensive web site - located
at New Zealand's QRD. Includes newspaper accounts in both English
and Turkish.
Gay Hong Kong
An elaborate site. God for current information
Molefi Asante: Interview on Homosexuality,
on THIS WAY OUT [At QRD]
Asante, a leading proponent of Afrocentrism, had long called homosexuality
a western deviation. He has now publically changed his mind, as
more information about African gender/sexuality has come to light.
Gays: Guardians of the Gates,
An Interview with Malidoma Som, M.E.N. Magazine, September
1993 [At Afrinet]
Malidoma Som is charged by his elders of the Dagara tribe of Burkina
Faso with bringing the wisdom of his tribe to the West. His book Ritual: Power, Healing and Community. Malidoma notes "among
the Dagara people, gender has very little to do with anatomy.
It is purely energetic. In that context, a male who is physically
male can vibrate female energy, and vice versa… And this
is something that also touches on what has become known here as
the "gay" or "homosexual" issue. Again, in
the culture that I come from, this is not the issue. These people
are looked on, essentially, as people. The whole notion of "gay"
does not exist in the indigenous world. That does not mean that
there are not people there who feel the way that certain people
feel in this culture, that has led to them being referred to as
'gay'…The gay person is looked at primarily as a 'gatekeeper.'"
Robert Aitken: Gay marriage from a Buddhist perspective [At OutNow]
Aitken is an important figure in American Zen. His discussion
here is mainly directed at modern concerns, but he discusses the
history.
Chin Bratotvoreniyu [At QRD]
Old Church Slavonic text of the Rite of Brotherhood, abbreviated,
with standard liturgical prayers (most of Litany, Antiphons, etc.)
omitted. Cf. Jacobus Goar, Euchologion (1st ed., Paris 1647; 2nd
ed., Venice 1730), pp. 706-709, s.v. "Akolouthia eis Adelphopoiian
Pneumatiken." From: Velikii Potrebnik, printed by Edinovertsii
in Moscow (Now called Belokrinitsky Hierarchy of Old Rite), in
the year 1904. Transcribed by Nikita Syrnikov. Translated by Fr.
Basil Isaacks April 1, 1995.
Montaigne: A Homosexual Marriage in Rome,
[At Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Catholic Handbook].
Account of a homosexual marriage in 16th-century Rome by Montaigne.
In a sense, much of the history claimed by "lesbians and
gays" is a history of people who were functionally bisexual.
In particular many of the famous names on lists of "famous
homosexuals" were sexually active with both men and women.
However, it also seems to be true that a clearly, or even hazily,
formulated "bisexual" social identity is even more recent
than "homosexual" and "heterosexual" identities.
I will correct this statement if it is shown to be wrong, but
specifically "bisexual" organizations seem only to have
existed since the 1970s.
This relatively new formulation does not mean that there is no
"history" of bisexuality. There have been voices in
the past which have proclaimed a need for sexual freedom - whether
these be the "libertines" of the 16th century, the English
"rakes" of the 17th century, or the sexual radicals
of the 1960s. It has proved quite possible to be explicitly homo(mono)sexual
and fundamentally conservative in sexual expectations. I would
take as the most significant aspect of the history of bisexuality
not those people who were bisexually active, but those who sought
to explore the complexities of human sexual choices.
Bi.org
A new dedicated Bisexual site, with a guide to academic resources.
Bisexual [At Carleton.ca]
A Splendid collection of resources, including historical accounts,
advice, and current issues..
Marquis De Sade Page [At websight.com]
Reading De Sade is not pleasant. He is genuinely obscene. Nevertheless,
in the annals of the search for freedom he has a place. In nothing
else, he shows that there are limits.
"Trans*" is a complex category to analyze and document
historically. In some respects, however, it is easier conceptually
than "gay": although homosexual activity is documentable
in many societies, it is much harder to document social and psychological
ideas about "identity" and "orientation".
On the other hand, the existence of neither male nor female gendered
people ("transgressive" .or not) is very widely documented
throughout many societies and cultures. This includes cross-dressers,
women who lived as men, eunuchs, "third sex" people,
"two-spirited" people, modern transvestites, modern
surgical transsexuals, and so forth.
Some modern gays and lesbians seek to distance themselves from
this trans* history: some gay men in particular have sought to
portray their homosexuality as fully "masculine". In
fact, modern homosexuals do transgress one of the basic markers
of gender identity in modern society, the marker than says masculinity
is marked out by having sex with women.
Discussions:
[see also under "Native American Societies" for "berdache"
discussions]
William J. Mann: Courting ritual [At Boston Phoenix]
On the "imperial court" drag fundraising phenomenon.
Ruth McCausland: Drag Queens: Problematic Subversion?Tharunka November 1996 [at Tharunka]
"Is the figure of the drag queen subverting or reaffirming
dominant norms of 'femininity' and 'masculinity'?"
Intersex Society of North America
Includes full text of a sometimes historically informed newsletter
called Hermaphrodites with Attitude.
The Gallae HomePage
An extraordinary web site devoted to ancient and modern gallae [gender variant devotees of the Mother Goddess]. It contains
valuable information, but often without citation of sources. It
can thus not be relied on as to accuracy, but will give some valuable
hints for further research.
There has been a persistant willingness by gay writers to criticise aspects of gay culture, and of lesbian writers to criticise lesbian culture.
Some of the criticism is probably justified, but elements of sheer intellectual and class-based snobbery towards the lumpen-schwulen play an important part.
In general these writers live in comparatively safe urban gay environments (London, New York, San Francisco. West Hollywood), have come to terms with their homosexuality long ago, and feel free to offer critiques. Their targets usually (repeatedly in fact), include gay activists, gay commercial culture, gay entertainment, Pride events and so forth. Despite protestations to the contrary, they tend to obliterate the very real struggles still going on for most gays and lesbians (violence, discrimination, religious intolerance), and ignore the benefits of a commercial culture. Above all they create tendentious constructions of gay culture in order to attack.
Review of Anti-Gay [At Planetsoma]
Review, and extensive excerpts of Mark Simpson, ed., Anti-Gay, (London: Freedom Editions, 1996), with excerpts.
Gabriel Rotello: Creating a New Gay Culture: Balancing Fidelity & Freedom, The Nation, 04/21/97 [At The Nation]
Rotello opposes sexual liberation in favor of a better "ecology".
Summarizes the political parts of his book Sexual Ecology.
Chris Thomas: Who's to blame? [At Outnow]
Review of Daniel Harris The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture,(New York: Hyperion, 1997). Harris is a defender of the notion of gay sensibility. Thomas sees this book as part of a backlash against the Signorile/Simpson/Rotello group.
Sex Panic Leaflet, June 1997
A leaflet handed out in New York city about a public meeting on combating the the sex panic seen in the "anti-gay" writers.
Bibliographical Guide to Lesbian and Gay History [Halsall], [Updated May 1997. In HTML and more complete than
versions at other websites]
This is an extensive bibliographical guide for further research
into the history of homosexuality. It is up to date, and will
print out at over 70 pages.
The Outlist V.2.1 by Mark Hertzog [At QRD]
700 living openly gay, lesbian, gay or trans* people.
The Blacklist V.20 by Chuck Tarver [At QRD] and The Blacklist HTML Version with links to more info. [At U. Delaware]
Black gays and lesbians. dead and alive people. Well referenced.
If a text or source exits at another site, I have merely linked
to that site. The fact it is an off-site link is marked every
time by square brackets and some indication of where the site
is.
There are now a fair number of LGBT history sites, although none
have the reach of People with a History. Here are the ones
I know about:-
FONDAZIONE [At Geocities.com]
The Foundation was established in Turin in July, 1980, with the
aims of developing cultural activities aimed to support and spread
research, knowledge and information on male and female homosexuality.
History of Homosexuality and Homosexuality in History
A Columbia University web site on modern historiography of homosexuality
[with pictures of the leading historians] connected to the Stonewall
25 celebrations.
Gerbils [At QRD]
Gay men do not put gerbils in condoms into their rectums. People
of all sexual orientations do, in fact, put an amazing variety
of objects inside themselves, but the Gerbil myth has been especially
common. There is no basis in fact for the story.
Pedophilia There is no topic more controversial than the issue of inter-generational sex. There are many web pages on the net which promote "boy love". I will not link to them. GLAAD and the ILGA [International Lesbian and Gay Association], about as mainstream LGBT organizations as one can find, take a specific stance Against Pedophilia and NAMBLA [Jan 16, 1994, At GLAAD]. Other non-pedophile gays have argued
that the issues at least deserved to be raised - for instance
the Ad Hoc Spirit of Stonewall [at Actwin.com] group at Stonewall 25. Judged by the boos the pedophile groups meet at LGBT Pride Parades, they have little support in the LGBT community.
There is nothing specifically homosexual about pedophilia - some pedophiles are attracted to children of the same sex, others to children of the opposite sex, and some to children in general. There is little doubt, furthermore, that the vast majority of cases of childsex involves men, usually fathers or stepfathers, with girls.
One final point: although historic formulations of homosexual eros often are called "pederasty", as in Greece and Rome, these formulations were NOT about adult-child sex. The proposed younger partners were what we would now call "older teenagers", i.e. young sexually mature adults, not "boys". The advent of industrial society has created a situation in which people reach sexual maturity before they reach social maturity, but this was not the case in the periods when age-dissonant homosexuality was the norm.
