A brief history of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr social movements

Contents:

• WERE THE SPARTANS GAY? HOMOSEXUALY SPARTA, ANCIENT GREECE
• GAY HISTORY IN GREECE
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

WERE THE SPARTANS GAY? HOMOSEXUALY SPARTA, ANCIENT GREECE

Heterosexualy and homosexualy were both enuraged and expected at different stag life, wh homosexualy, mon wh prevalent ancient Greek thought, beg seen as the ial form of love and heterosexualy as sential for procreatn. But rerds of the LGBT romanc survived homophobic revisnists and still stand as celebratns of the origal Greek (and Roman) love. A seri of poems about Catull' gay love affairs has drawn more attentn ntemporary tim; some of gets outright vulgar.

Alexanr the Great and HephatnAlexanr III, the famed kg of Macedon, que likely mataed a gay relatnship wh his general Hephatn. Ined, two of the most famed generals of their day, Epamondas and Pelopidas, were lovers who fought wh this famo band of gay warrrs.

Pdar and TheoxenThe most famo love poem wrten by Pdar to clare his love for the young Theoxen was scribed by gay rights scholar Magn Hirschfeld as "one of the most perfect love songs the Greek language.

GAY HISTORY IN GREECE

Ort and PylasThe relatnship between the two men was celebrated by Greek scholars as a tale of the wonr of homoerotic romance. He lived wh longtime lover Psanias, who was quoted extensively on the subject of homosexual sire Plato's work. Sce I wrote my blog post last week about my gay history exploratns, people have been askg me to say somethg more about gay history Greece.

And this is very much on my md, as I am leadg Osr Wil Tours’ gay history and art tour Greece only 3 or 4 months ()! Greece is of urse one of the great untri for gay history, bee some form or forms of same-sex love were ctomary the ancient Greek world. There is a fairly plete marble py Italy, the Napl archaeologil mm, which I have ed as the ma photo for this post, wh last year’s Osr Wil Tours Gay Italy group posed ont of .

Much as the Greeks had gay hero, they also had gay gods, and the kg of the gods (also of urse a major womanizer) had a boyiend, the Trojan prce Ganyme, whom he rried off to pour the gods’ nectar, “on acunt of his bety, ” as the Iliad says. Another great gay artwork om Delphi, om the great temple of the ancient world’s most important oracle, where rponse to qutns om all over the world, the prits terpreted the sctable ravgs Apollo supposedly spired his prits.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

But somehow this is the most handsome of all the many statu of him, and a ftg monument to gay history Greece—a culture which the ary hero and gods were often what we would ll gay! The term gay is equently ed as a synonym for homosexual; female homosexualy is often referred to as different tim and different cultur, homosexual behavur has been varly approved of, tolerated, punished, and banned.

Homosexualy was not unmon ancient Greece and Rome, and the relatnships between adult and adolcent mal particular have bee a chief foc of Wtern classicists recent years. Others—om factns wh mastream Prottantism to anizatns of Reform rabbis—have advoted, on theologil as well as social grounds, the full acceptance of homosexuals and their relatnships. Morn velopments Attus toward homosexualy are generally flux, partially as a rult of creased polil activism (see gay rights movement) and efforts by homosexuals to be seen not as aberrant personali but as differg om “normal” dividuals only their sexual orientatn.

The nflictg views of homosexualy—as a variant but normal human sexual behavur on one hand, and as psychologilly viant behavur on the other—rema prent most societi the 21st century, but they have been largely rolved ( the profsnal sense) most veloped untri.