A Brief History of Homosexuality

If indeed there had been a change in societies attitude towards homosexuality it can be best seen in the gradual change from a moral condemnation based on a reading of Biblical texts to  secular laws often derived from the reading of those same Biblical texts. There is little doubt that the law could be as harsh in its punishments as any Church. For example, in England, even as late as 1828, Parliament passed a law that stated, “Every person convicted of the abominable crime of buggery  either committed with mankind or with an animal will suffer death as a felon.” It was common throughout this period for sex between consenting adult males to be associated with sex between animals. It was considered little better than animal abuse. Still, in Britain homosexuality was considered a vice best ignored, though Parliament continued to legislate against it. Homosexuality and effeminate behaviour was believed to be a vice of foreigners. Where it did exist in Britain it was believed to be an unfortunate by-product  of the public school system. Abnormal sex, flagellation and masturbation (the British disease) were taboo subjects and not liable to discussion. This did not prevent Parliament from adding a clause to the Criminal Amendment Act of 1885′, specifically criminalising homosexuality and allowing for up to 2 years hard labour as punishment. Its most high profile victim was to be the Irish playwright and novelist, Oscar Wilde.

Even today, homosexuals are subject to laws restricting their rights to free expression.It is still possible for homosexuals to be arrested for public displays of affection. They can of course express physical love in the privacy of their own homes provided they are over 18. Though homosexuality is now legal in most Western countries artifices are still employed to limit its exercise. In the American State of Virginia there exists the so-called Sodomy Statutes which do not specifically outlaw homosexuality but instead ban all anal and oral intercourse regardless of sex. Such ambivalence simply engenders the ‘thick moral blanket’ that continues to shroud an honest debate, not just about homosexuality, but about sex and relationships in general.

Religious condemnation and legal punishment of any minority group or pursuit reflect societies need to condemn as a whole. Exercising what John Stuart Mill, referred to as social democracy practising, “a tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression.” Certainly physical punishments for acts of homosexuality have diminished over the centuries in western Europe, it is less certain whether the social and moral condemnation of such acts have diminished likewise. Homosexuals are still often forced to live surreptitiously, to pursue double lives, to forego careers, lie to their families, and are reduced to living in twilight worlds and sub-cultures separate from mainstream society. They may no longer be in fear of the law but remain intimidated by social condemnation and the subsequent discrimination, which despite our best efforts it would be foolish to deny.

This almost paranoid anxiety about homosexuality has been described as a uniquely European trait that does not necessarily exist in the rest of the world. Though there are countries where the punishments for homosexuality remain medieval in their brutality. The language to describe homosexuals is still often derogatory and abusive even in the most liberal of societies. For the stage we are at is one of toleration not acceptance, and this toleration can always be withdrawn. The law may have changed, the Church less so, but societies attitude towards homosexuality is perhaps best expressed in the vernacular and this indicates less change than perhaps might be imagined.