Homosexuality

The term homosexuality refers to sexual attraction to a person of the same sex. In contemporary times, people refer to this attraction as one's sexual orientation.

It is important to note that the term homosexual is no longer widely used to describe people involved in same-sex relationships. In most instances, the terms gay and lesbian are preferred to describe a man or a woman who is sexually and emotionally attracted to members of the same sex, respectively. This is because there is a negative history tied to the term homosexual that involves certain organizations or groups defining homosexuality as a mental disorder or a deviance. Oftentimes, the term LGBTQ is used to refer to individuals in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning community. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation (GLAAD), an LGBTQ advocacy organization focused on media representation, ranks homosexual on its list of offensive terms. Because of such issues, many publications limit their use of the terms homosexual and homosexuality when discussing same-sex relationships.

There is a long history of same-sex relationships existing in cultures around the world. However, society has not always accepted the existence of these relationships. Throughout time, gay and lesbian individuals have faced discrimination and persecution. In the twenty-first century, the struggle for LGBTQ rights continues in countries around the globe.

Background

Experts believe that men and women have engaged in same-sex relationships since ancient times. At the time, terms such as gay, lesbian, and sexual orientation did not exist. People would not have described anyone in a same-sex relationship using those terms either. Nevertheless, evidence from ancient civilizations in various parts of the world suggests that men and women have had relationships with members of the same sex for thousands of years.

Artifacts dating back to around 1700 BCE suggest that same-sex relationships between men were not uncommon in Mesopotamia. Poetry dating from the Zhou dynasty (1045–256 BCE) in China mentions men involved in relationships with other men. Historians also note that several Chinese emperors were engaged in same-sex relationships. Evidence suggests that Chinese women were involved in relationships with other women as well. Some of these women lived in communities where they produced goods such as silk. Female partners in these communities often lived together as spouses, and some even held marriage ceremonies.

Same-sex relationships were also common in ancient Greece and Rome before Christianity took hold there. Older Greek men were known to have relationships with younger men. Relationships with individuals of the same sex were also referenced in ancient Greek literature. In the famous epic poem the Iliad by Homer, there is a deep relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. Some literary experts point to the overwhelming grief Achilles experiences following Patroclus's death as evidence that the two were involved romantically. Male same-sex relationships were not the only ones depicted in ancient Greek literature. The poet Sappho, who lived on the Greek island of Lesbos sometime between 610 and 580 BCE, often wrote love poems addressed to women. These poems were not sexual in nature, but rather filled with romantic longing. The Roman emperor Nero, who reigned from 54 to 68 CE, married two men. Historians think that many other Roman emperors were likely involved in same-sex relationships as well.

A number of Indigenous cultures have long had a concept of a third gender and acknowledged that Two-Spirit people were able to see the world through the eyes of all genders. Two-Spirit people, who were often assigned male at birth, were thought to have the characteristics of both males and females. Indigenous cultures often revered Two-Spirit people, who were sometimes responsible for performing religious ceremonies. Two-Spirit people usually married individuals of the same sex. They were initially called berdache by French observers during the colonization of North America, a term that is now considered both outdated and offensive. In India, the concept of a third gender or sex has also existed for possibly thousands of years.

Although gay and lesbian relationships have existed for thousands of years, societies have not always accepted them. Various world religions, including Christianity, eventually prohibited their adherents from engaging in same-sex relationships. As Christianity took hold in much of the Western world, prohibitions against same-sex relationships made their way into secular law. One of the first of these laws was England's Buggery Law of 1533, issued by King Henry VIII. When European colonists started settling in America, they brought ideas and laws against same-sex relationships with them.

The Virginia colony was the first to pass a law against sexual relations between men in 1610. Fourteen years later, the first person prosecuted under this law was executed. While there were more cases of men being prosecuted under laws prohibiting same-sex relations, women were also punished for engaging in relationships with members of the same sex. In 1642, Elizabeth Johnson, a servant in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was accused of having a relationship with another woman. She had to pay a fine, and she received a severe whipping. This was the first documented case of a woman being convicted under such laws.

As the years passed, some laws changed regarding the punishment for people engaged in same-sex relations. Over time, many colonies and states in America did away with the death penalty as punishment for engaging in sexual acts with members of the same sex. However, gay and lesbian relationships were still taboo and even illegal in many parts of the country.

By the late nineteenth century, doctors and scientists in a variety of fields began investigating "homosexuality" from a clinical standpoint. In some cases, psychiatrists and other physicians claimed that gay men and lesbian women had some form of mental disorder. Others believed that being gay or lesbian was a perversion that could be treated or, in other opinions, should be punished. Experts blamed such behavior on many factors, including issues related to race, class, and immigration. The emerging independence of many women in the late 1800s was also thought to be a factor in female homosexuality. Described at the time as "new women," these women were attending college and living independently of men. This caused some experts to assert that early feminism was causing women to become lesbians.

The idea of same-sex sexual orientation being a disorder of some sort or an issue of morality contributed to negative stereotypes about gay men and lesbian women for years. In some cases, this stigma cost gay men and lesbians their lives. When the Nazi Party took over in Germany in the 1930s, officials made new laws prohibiting same-sex relationships between men in Paragraph 175 of the criminal code. This was done as part of the Nazis' efforts to "purify" German society. Prior to and during World War II (1939–45), Nazi forces arrested many gay men. Some lesbian women were also arrested during this time. About five to fifteen thousand gay men were sent to concentration camps during the Holocaust. However, there are no statistics on how many gay individuals died in the camps.

Gay and Lesbian People Today

During the twentieth century, gay and lesbian people started fighting for more rights. Tired of being marginalized by society for their sexual orientation, many gay activists started groups to protest against discrimination. However, most had little success in the early half of the century. One of the first organizations of this type in the United States was the Society for Human Rights founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago, Illinois, in 1924. The society did not last for more than a year, though.

Even as gay rights organizations began to form, there was still widespread discrimination against gay individuals in the United States. The Cold War (1947–91) era that followed World War II led to more repression for gay men and lesbian women. During this time, the nation was caught up in the Red Scare, which was a widespread fear of the rise of communism. Senator Joseph McCarthy, who pushed the idea that communists had infiltrated the highest levels of American government, explicitly linked gay people with communists. As investigations into communism within the government began, gay and lesbian federal workers started to lose their jobs. Officials claimed they were "security risks." Thousands of gay federal employees were fired or resigned from the late 1940s to the early 1960s in what was later called the Lavender Scare. Many gay military personnel were removed from duty during this time as well.

At the same time, gay people faced additional challenges when the American Psychiatric Association (APA) classified homosexuality as a "sociopathic personality disturbance" in the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). Classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder further stigmatized and marginalized gay men and lesbian women. It also led many people to view homosexuality as an illness that could be "cured." Psychiatrists and psychologists tried various practices, including cruel electric shock treatments, in attempts to try to "treat" gay individuals. This pathologizing of homosexuality continued into the 1960s. In 1968, the APA reclassified homosexuality as a "sexual deviation." The APA removed homosexuality as a mental disorder in the DSM in 1973, but homosexuality remained in the manual as a "sexual orientation disturbance" until its removal from the DSM in 1987.

In this tense climate, it was very difficult for gay men and lesbian women to socialize or be out in public with their partners. So-called gay bars were some of the only places where most LGBTQ individuals felt safe to be themselves outside their homes. However, these spaces were often the target of police raids during the 1960s. One such gay bar was the Stonewall Inn in New York City's Greenwich Village. Often, patrons of gay bars would attempt to leave quickly after the police arrived so they would not be arrested. However, on June 28, 1969, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn refused to leave following a police raid. They waited outside as the police arrested their friends, shoving them into police vehicles. Many people started yelling at the police and throwing objects at them, forcing the officers to hide inside the bar. This event set off several days and nights of protests against police treatment of gay people. Later known as the Stonewall Riots, these protests are considered by most experts to be the start of the modern gay rights movement. In late June 1970, the first gay pride parades were held in several US cities to mark the first anniversary of the riots.

As the fight for gay and lesbian rights continued throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, many activists' attention turned away from calls for marriage equality and protections against workplace discrimination. The HIV/AIDS crisis that began in the early 1980s affected many members of the gay and lesbian community, and many activists focused on raising awareness of the disease and helping people who needed treatment. Because HIV/AIDS was first diagnosed in gay men, the disease created unfounded fears regarding individuals in the LGBTQ community in relation to the disease. HIV/AIDS can affect persons of all sexual orientations.

In the 1990s, American attitudes toward gay and lesbian rights started to shift. Marriage equality once again became the focus of much activism regarding LGBTQ rights. Some states began legalizing civil unions or domestic partnerships in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. Still, partners were not always guaranteed the same rights as different-sex spouses under these unions. The Netherlands was the first country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2000. Other countries—including Canada, Spain, Belgium, South Africa, Norway, and Sweden—also legalized same-sex marriage by the end of the decade. Finally, in 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled in the case Obergefell v. Hodges that the right to marry is a fundamental liberty protected by the Constitution and that this right applies equally to both different-sex and same-sex couples. This made same-sex marriage legal in all fifty states. Then, in 2022, the Respect for Marriage Act repealed the Defense of Marriage Act, which was passed in 1996 and defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. The Respect for Marriage Act also required states to recognize same-sex marriages from other states and ensured that federal benefits are provided to those in a same-sex marriage.

While gay men and lesbian women have gained many rights in the twenty-first century, many gay people still face discrimination in countries around the world, including the United States. The struggle for equality continues as LGBTQ individuals and their allies fight for protections in the workplace, for adoption rights, and against the prejudice and violence that continues to affect the lives of LGBTQ people around the world.

Bibliography

Adkins, Judith. "Congressional Investigations and the Lavender Scare." Prologue Magazine, vol. 48, no. 2, 2016, www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/summer/lavender.html. Accessed 17 Oct. 2017.

Burton, Neel. "When Homosexuality Stopped Being a Mental Disorder." Psychology Today, 18 Sept. 2015, www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201509/when-homosexuality-stopped-being-mental-disorder. Accessed 17 Oct. 2017.

"A Chronology of U.S. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History." Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered History in America, edited by Marc Stein, vol. 1, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004, pp. xxiii–xlvi.

Drescher, Jack. "Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality." Edited by Carol North and Alina Suris, Behavioral Sciences, vol. 5, no. 4, 2015, pp. 565–75.

Enos, Tony. "8 Things You Should Know about Two Spirit People." ICT, 13 Sept. 2018. ictnews.org/archive/8-misconceptions-things-know-two-spirit-people. Accessed 31 Jan. 2023.

Kinery, Emma. "Biden Signs Bill to Protect Same-Sex and Interracial Marriages." CNBC, 13 Dec. 2022, www.cnbc.com/2022/12/13/biden-signs-respect-for-marriage-act-to-protect-same-sex-interracial-marriages.html. Accessed 31 Jan. 2023.

Leclerc, Nancy. "Homosexuality." Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by H. James Birx, vol. 3, SAGE Reference, 2006, pp. 1196–1200.

Newton, David E. Same-Sex Marriage: A Reference Handbook, ABC-CLIO, 2010, pp. 1–29 and 81–109.

"Gay Men Under the Nazi Regime." Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 28 May 2021, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/gay-men-under-the-nazi-regime. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

Peters, Jeremy W. "The Decline and Fall of the 'H' Word." New York Times, 21 Mar. 2014, www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/fashion/gays-lesbians-the-term-homosexual.html. Accessed 17 Oct. 2017.

"Stonewall Inn." Landmarks Preservation Commission, 23 June 2015, s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2574.pdf. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

Wolf, Richard. "Timeline: Same-Sex Marriage through the Years." USA Today, 24 June 2015, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/06/24/same-sex-marriage-timeline/29173703/. Accessed 17 Oct. 2017.