1) Khnumhotep/Niankhkhnum – ancient Egypt, around 2400 BC
They were the first homosexual couple recorded in history. Since they were royal servants when they were alive, they were allowed to share a burial chamber. Even their names proved their close relationship: Niankhkhnum means “joined to life” and Khnumhotep means “joined to the blessed state of the dead” and together the names can be translated as “joined in life and joined in death.” Museum Link (Minnesota State University)
2) 300-400 century B.C.
The ancient Greeks
The ancient Greeks considered the phallus to be the most potent symbol of fertility and women were supposedly jealous of male genitalia. Prostitution and homosexuality were social institutions, and although women were under strict sexual restraints, men could easily buy prostitutes off the streets or in temples. It was also totally normal for men to have sexual relationships with younger men and act as their mentors until these younger men were married.
Etruria
Although this civilization was around at the same time as the ancient Greeks, they had vastly different views on sexuality. Plato considered Etruscans to be immoral. Since women as well as men had extramarital affairs, often women weren’t sure of their children’s paternity. This would have been unforgivable for Athenian citizens.
India
India is credited as one of the pioneers of sex education as they had some of the first literature on the subject. They were also famously known for the Kama Sutra, which isn’t the only text on practical sexual advice, but one of the most well known. The work also features a lot of poetry and describes 64 sexual acts.
Medieval times
During the 1400s, monks wrote texts on appropriate behaviour for Catholic Christians. They were supposed to be a guide on moral behaviour for monks and clerics as well, but often were a long list of sins and the corresponding penances people had to perform in order to gain forgiveness.
“Though it sounds a bit dirty to say it, people had to ‘offer satisfaction’ by fasting, saying prayers, wearing itchy clothing (etc),” said Marc Saurette, professor of history at Carleton. “These texts don’t only deal with sexual sins, but these, by far, are the most interesting passages to read about. What historians disagree about is whether the books are a catalogue of all the sins thought possible, or a list of sins that happened all the time. . . . They nonetheless are important documents showing that institutionalized Christianity (especially in Ireland where many of these documents come from) were very concerned with regulating sexuality (inside and outside of marriage).”
3) Victorian England – around the 1830s – beginning of the 1900s
In the era leading up to Victorian England, Western society actually practiced flexibility and toleration when it came to sexuality. Nowadays we think of Victorian England as full of strict rules about sexual behaviour, but Victorians actually thought a lot about sex, especially in terms of science.
For example, Sigmund Freud’s ideas were widely accepted, including his belief that the sex drive is the prime motivating force that drives all people.
Also, in 1861, Johann Bachofen wrote about human sexuality in three stages. He said human sexuality evolves from the “aphroditic” stage, which is promiscuous and chaotic, moving to the matriarchal “demetric” stage. Finally, humans move to the “apolloan” stage, which is monogamy enforced by men to ensure the paternity of their children. Bachofen’s work was pivotal in studies of human sexuality.
4) Sexology – around the 1890s.
Sexology, or the science of sex, began with thinkers like Kraft-Ebbing and other Viennese psychiatrists and medical doctors. They provided medical definitions of lesbianism as well as various sexual “disorders” like masochism, fetishism, transsexualism and sadism. In a sense, anything that was not considered mainstream at the time was supposedly medically related, or a kind of sickness.
5) 1920s – the idea of the “New Woman”
A lesbian bar culture arose in Europe, as well as women who were considered more rebellious. They were called “flappers” because the skirts they wore showed their ankles, something that was considered taboo before this point. More importantly, however, women got the right to vote in many countries and therefore became more visible in the public sphere. Women gained a greater sense of entitlement and self-awareness.
At this time, Magnus Hirschfeld, a gay German physician, wrote about homosexuality and what he called the “third sex.” This dated back to an ancient Greek myth about why people are homosexual. Legend has it that people were once two-headed and considered male-female, male-male or female-female. But an angry Zeus split up these individuals, explaining why people are always looking for the other half of themselves. Hirschfeld believed in science more than Greek mythology, but this was a starting point for his work.
6) World War II shift in attitudes – around 1940
Women on the homefront were changing their self-identity, since they were working in factories and outside of the home while the men were at war. But nations in arms meant more men and women found each other in the military, which led to a rise in closeted homosexuality.
Hitler’s persecution of homosexuals, victims who wore the pink triangle, sent 15,000 to their death in jails, prisons and camps with hundreds of thousands more arrested under evidence of their “criminal persuasion.”
7) 1950s
We think this era is synonymous with conformity, but during this time there was a “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude towards homosexuality.
After WWII, men met men more easily, especially while at war. As a result, there was a movement from closeted homosexuality towards “homophiles,” or early gay rights activists. These were organizations like Arcadie in France. Some people started reading the journal Der Kreis, or “The Circle,” an international gay magazine.
8) 1960s to the 1970s – the Sexual Revolution
The ’60s and ’70s represented a huge shift of cultural values, partially because technologies controlling fertility were improved — one of the most important was the birth control pill.
“The pivotal thing about ’69 to ’70 is that there was legal reform. Virtually everywhere — not in all countries — there were legal reforms making homosexuality legal, making marital divorce attainable, allowing people access to abortion, and that in law meant that these values could not be challenged,” Evans said.
“In the ’70s, for a while, homosexuality was legal but also seen as a psychiatric condition.”
Legislation soon followed: Pierre Trudeau put forward Canada’s Omnibus Bill approving divorce. The bill also brought forward abortion and homosexuality as mainstream issues in Canadian society.
“The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation,” Trudeau said.
“I don’t know, because the state has always been in the bedrooms of the nation,” said Evans. “As we know, the state is everywhere in the choices we make, whether it’s in taxing the products we use, or in teaching a vision of health in schools that is inclusive today but at one point was not. So the state is always in our bedrooms, like it or not.”
9) AIDS pandemic of the 1980s
The AIDS pandemic first surfaced in the 1980s, and over the last two decades the disease has killed more than 20 million people. Today, more than 40 million live with the HIV virus, and 90 per cent of those people live in the developing world, making it harder for these people to get access to medication for their condition.
Quips from Professor Jennifer Evans
“The thing you have to remember is that we think we are so progressive on all sorts of issues, yet . . . if you go outside of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, you’re not going to see everybody embracing gay marriage, and you’re not going to see toleration for transsexuality or transgender folks. You’re going to see people not so happy at unwed mothers. So we think we’re so progressive, and so on paper we’re tolerant, but in practice it’s not so clear that we’ve made those great strides.”
“Sexuality is one of those things, where it’s never just about the sex. It’s always about so much more. It’s about morality, it’s about politics. It’s about the way our social order is understood, our values. So there’s a lot of panic, always, about what people are doing, how they’re doing it, and with who they’re doing it. And this is something that happens in the West, it happens in the East, it happens in the North, and it happens in the South.”
“We like to think that we’re free agents, making choices of our own accord, but our choices are always shaped by the laws that we live by, and maybe not necessarily the party in power, but we are sort of bound to a social contract that is transparent, and really does help kind of guide us, for better or worse, in the choices we make.”