when did homosexuality begin and was it  secret?
342171
Sexual customs have varied greatly over time and from one region to another. These, as well as the orientation of particular pre-contemporary figures continue to be studied. Modern Western gay culture, largely a product of 19th century psychology as well as the years of post-Stonewall Gay Liberation, is a relatively recent manifestation of same-sex desire. It is generally not applicable as a standard when investigating same-gender sex and historical opinions and beliefs held by other people.\n\nIt is generally accepted that the lives of historical figures such as Socrates, Lord Byron, Edward II, Hadrian, Julius Caesar, Michelangelo, Donatello and Christopher Marlowe included or were centred upon love and sexual relationships with people of their own gender. Terms such as gay or bisexual have been applied to them, but many regard this as risking the anachronistic introduction of a contemporary construction of sexuality foreign to their times.[citation needed] Variations from modern standards of beauty, social roles, sexual positions, and age disparities are of such magnitude so as to render meaningless any projection of modern roles onto historical personages. This does not mean, however, that people in the past experienced the physical phenomenon of homosexual attraction any differently than people experience it today.\n\nWhile some premodern societies did not employ categories fully comparable to the modern homosexual or heterosexual dichotomy, this does not demonstrate that the polarity is not applicable to those societies. A common thread of constructionist argument is that no one in antiquity or the Middle Ages experienced homosexuality as an exclusive, permanent, or defining mode of sexuality. John Boswell has criticised this argument by citing ancient Greek writings by Plato, which he says indicate knowledge of exclusive homosexuality.[citation needed]Michel Foucault and historians following his line of thought have argued that the homosexual is a modern invention, a social construct of the last 100 years.[citation needed] While true of homosexuality as a scientific or psychological category, there are examples from earlier ages of those viewing their sexuality as a part of a human identity and not merely a sexual act. [citation needed] One cited example is the 16th century Italian artist Giovanni Antonio Bazzi who adopted the nickname "Sodoma", which is viewed by Louis Crompton as something analogous to the modern gay identity.\n\n\nThe earliest western documents (in the form of literary works, art objects, as well as mythographic materials) concerning same-sex relationships are derived from Ancient Greece. They depict a world in which relationships with women and relationships with youths were the essential foundation of a normal man's love life. Same-sex relationships were a social institution variously constructed over time and from one city to another. (See Pederasty) The practice, a system of relationships between an adult male and an adolescent coming of age, was often valued for its pedagogic benefits and as a means of population control, and occasionally blamed for causing disorder. Plato praised its benefits in his early writings, but in his late works proposed its prohibition, laying out a strategy which uncannily predicts the path by which same-sex love was eventually driven underground. (See Philosophy of Greek pederasty)\n\nThe Roman emperor Theodosius decreed a law, on August 6th, 390, condemning passive homosexuals to be burned at the stake. Justinian, towards the end of his reign, expanded the proscription to the active partner as well (in 558) warning that such conduct can lead to the destruction of cities through the "wrath of God." Notwithstanding these regulations, taxes on homosexual boy brothels continued to be collected until the end of the reign of Anastasius I in 518.\n\nDuring the Renaissance, cities in northern Italy, Florence and Venice in particular, were renowned for
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It is not an abnormality, nor is it a disease. It is a normal, naturally occuring state of existance.Nor is it a mental illness.Homosexuality was removed from the DSM in the late '60's.
831734
Found out?  As if anyone could keep a secret from themselves?  You may find out what gay is, but I seriously you doubt one could suddenly discover they are gay.  The only epiphany to be had is knowing what to call it - most know already.\n\nPart of me wanted to be a smart aleck and answer that I would beg myself not to tell my husband, but I resisted!  ;-)
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1.HIV/AIDS looks to be prominent among the gay community probably becoz this virus and the disease was first discovered in gays and was thought to infect only the gays,thus it was termed as a gay related disease but it is well know now that even hetrosexuals can get it if u sleep around with people without any protection.\n2.How we humans got it remains a mystery but scientists now belive that we got it from their bite or when man consumed bush meat.\n3.No America was not the first place,it just that this disease was first discoved in America in 1980's.It was know to have existed in Africa even earlier in the 1950's.
969192
Read Exodus 20 & Romans 1.  They explain the root reasons of homosexuality.\n\nLean not on your own understanding, but trust in the Lord.
377031
dunno...\nbut it started with adam and eve...\nbecause of the "man and wife" thing...
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Famous Gays and Lesbians in History:\n \nSappho (600 B.C.) Greek Poetess \nSocrates (470-399 B.C.) Greek Teacher and Philosopher \nPlato (427-347 B.C.) Greek Teacher and Philosopher \nAlexander The Great (356-323 B.C.) Macedonian King and Military Leader \nWu (140-87 B.C.) Chinese Emperor \nHadrian (76-138 A.D.) Roman Emperor \nRichard the Lion Hearted (1157-1199) English King and Crusader \nEdward II (1254-1327) English King \nLeonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Italian Renaissance Artist, Teacher, Scientist and Inventor \nMichelangelo (1475-1564) Italian Renaissance Artist and Sculptor \nMontezuma II (1480-1520) Aztec Emperor \nJulius III (1487-1555) Catholic Pope \nIeyasu Tokugawa (1542-1616) Japanese Shogun and founder of the Edo Shogunate \nSir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) British Statesman and Writer \nChristopher Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet \nChristina (1626-1689) Swedish Queen \nPeter the Great (1672-1725) Russian Czar \nFrederick the Great (1712-1786) Prussian King and Military Leader \nMadame de Stael (1766-1817) French Writer and Intellectual \nLord Byron (1788-1824) British Poet \nHans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) Danish Poet and Writer \nMargaret Fuller (1810-1850) Euro-American Writer and Journalist \nHenry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Euro-American Philosopher, Naturalist, and Peace Activist \nWalt Whitman (1819-1892) Euro-American Poet \nHerman Melville (1819-1891) Euro-American Writer \nChief Crazy Horse (Tashunca witco) (1849-1877) Oglala Sioux Chief \nPeter I. Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Russian Composer \nOscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish Writer and Dramatist \nDame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) British Composer, Writer, and Activist \nMarcel Proust (1871-1922) French Writer \nSergei Diaghileff (1872-1929) Russian Ballet Impresario \nVita Sackville-West (1892-1962) British Writer \nVaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950) Russian Ballet Dancer \nEdward Carpenter (1844-1929) British Author and Gay Rights Pioneer \nWilla Cather (1873-1947) Euro-American Writer and Critic \nColette (1873-1954) French Writer and Actress \nW. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) British Writer and Dramatist \nAlice B. Toklas (1877-1967) Euro-American Writer; Stein's Domestic Partner \nGertrude Stein (1874-1946) Euro-American Writer and Art Collector; Toklas' Domestic Partner \nBessie Smith (1894-1937) African-American Blues Singer and Entertainer \nE.M. Forster (1879-1970) British Writer \nVirginia Woolf (1882-1941) British Writer and Publisher \nErnst Rohm (1887-1933) German Nazi and SA Leader \nT.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) (1888-1935) British Soldier \nJean Cocteau (1889-1963) French Writer and Filmmaker \nJohn Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) British Economist and Nobel Prize Winner \nCole Porter (1893-1964) Euro-American Composer \nBayard Rustin (1910-87) African-American Civil Rights, Labor Rights, & Peace Activist/Leader \nAlan Turing (1912-1954) British Mathematician and Computer Scientist \nJames Baldwin (1924-1987) African-American Writer and Civil Rights Activist \nTruman Capote (1924-1984) Euro-American Author \nTennessee Williams (1914-1983) Euro-American Dramatist \nMarguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987) Belgian-American Writer \nFederico Garcia Lorca (1894-1936) Spanish Poet and Dramatist \nChristopher Isherwood (1904-1986) British Author \nW.H. Auden (1907-1973) British Poet and Writer \nHarvey Milk (1930-1978) Euro-American Politician \nAudre Lorde (1934-1992) African-American Writer and Activist \nBillie Jean King (1943 - ) Euro-American Tennis Champion and Activist \nMartina Navratilova (1956- ) Czechoslovakian-American Tennis Champion and Activist \nAndy Warhol (1930-1987) Euro-American Pop Artist \nFrieda Kahlo (1907-1954) Mexican Artist and Activist \nGore Vidal (1925- ) Euro-American Writer \nRudolf Nureyev (1938-1993) Russian dancer \nFreddie Mercury (1946-1991) British Singer/songwriter/musician \nElton John (1947 - ) British Singer/songwriter/musican \nJanis Ian (1951 - ) Euro-American Singer/songwriter/musician \nNathan Lane (
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Whoops, I meant:\n\nhttp://www.cathedralofhope.com/homosexuality/index.php\n\nEDIT: Interesting, Servant of God... you first put "God" instead of "Gay" as being a lust...\n\nFreudian Slip, perhaps?
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The dictionary is out-dated!\nThe bible was written as a historical account of that time\nby men who had their own ideas of how life should be.\nIf we did not have the bible to quote from, then what would\nour arguments against gays and lesbians be?\nOr for that matter - anyone that does not fit into the \ncategories that the bible denounces.\nYes, it is time that the laws on marriage are changed.\n\nNo one likes to be punished (biblical or otherwise)\nfor their decisions and mistakes!
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He was definitely bisexual but it wasn't widely known. I believe that he had an affair with the Duke of Buckingham, amongst others. It was sort of an open secret in court. \nYou have to bear in mind that they panic about "gays" is fairly recent - it stems from the Victorian era - "gay" as a sexuality didn't really exist in the 17th century. There were "sodomites", but it was never really assumed that because people liked a bit of both then they were mutually exclusive.\nSodomy quite often took place amongst the Upper Classes, it was only really when Middle Class morality started to overtake in the late 18th and early 19th century that it was seen as a problem.
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1959 Scientists isolate what is believed to be the earliest known case of AIDS. The discovery suggests that the multitude of global AIDS viruses all shared a common African ancestor within the past 40 to 50 years. \n  \n \n1978 Gay men in the US and Sweden -- and heterosexuals in Tanzania and Haiti -- begin showing signs of what will later be called  AIDS\n\n1980  Deaths in US -- 31 (includes all known cases 1981 and before)
1013228
I remember something about this from my sociology classes.  It's actually about the same everywhere, at least from what can be told from research that HAS been done.  Each time that researchers have surveyed people (of each sex, from whatever background, from any country, any religion, rural/urban, etc.)--- when the people were told and it was made VERY CLEAR that everything was confidential--- the results were about the same:  4%-5% of those responding identified themselves as homosexual and/or bisexual.\n\nResults from surveys that were NOT confidential were predictably very different.  Numbers were higher in urban and western areas, simply because homosexuality is more openly accepted in those places.  But give the people anonymity, and it seems to even out...
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back then the men slept with one another for heat,  but not the same man four years straight like lincoln\n\nthe man had a homosexual lover\n\nget over it
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Cool.  Thanks.  I did not know that.  I guess that goes for "homosexuals", too...?  That term wasn't coined until about that same time.
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Not at all! I back them up actually. If God wanted to promote homosexuality, then he would allow man-man woman-woman realationships, but he doesn't. He actually destroyed 2 cities (Sodom and Gomorrah) with a rain of fire because they were practising homosexuality.
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In the story of S & G, there is no mention of homosexuality.\n\nLot offered his two daughters and finally the maid.\n\nIf they were homos, they must have been women.\n\nBible thumpers read a lot more into their bibles than is actually there. And, coincidentally enough, their interpretations always fit what they already believed.\n\nTruly amazing how flexible "God's word" seems to be.
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still asking this question?? there is NO SUCH thing as being "born gay"...and no concrete scientific proof, either. just another lie and excuse people like to use to explain why they do what they want to do! people do experiment with same sex, and get hooked. known people who've told me this, and now they're "full blown" homosexuals.