Essay About Sexual Revolution And Entire Life

The Historical Journeys of Homosexuality
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Lindsey Shelton
English 112 – Bartlow
Paper # 3 – Final Copy
The Historical Journeys of Homosexuality
Throughout history, Gay and Lesbian rights have been publicly
persecuted
and raised-up into the public eye without their want or consent. The public
seem to have very different views on this subject, as has been displayed
through legislation and common opinion. These legislations, such as the
Napoleonic Code of 1804 and the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, both of
which deal with opposite ends of the spectrum, have made profound impacts on
the way society sees and deals with homosexuality and the subject of
same-sex marriage.
Gordon Rattray Taylor, author of the book Sex in History, states
“the history of civilization is the history of a long warfare between the
dangerous and powerful forces of the id, and the various systems of taboos
and inhibitions . . . erected to control them”(34) goes so far as to be
almost meaningless. There is a period in history that is referred to as The
Sexual Revolution. This period is the time in the 1960s and 1970s is
noteworthy because the attitudes about sex and sexuality changed
dramatically, leaving them more open. It included the acceptance of more
sexual partners and a growing number of marriages ending in divorce. This
time also marked huge shifts in attitudes towards womens sexuality, freedom
of sexual expression and homosexuality. (Taylor, 392)
It is well-known that most governments are developed on patriarchal
principles, favoring the man. Many women have spoken out against the gender
bias of their government, including the 19th century organized suffrage
movement. This movement is sometimes referred to as the first wave of
feminism. There are thoughts, from modern experiences, that this group of
women fighting for suffrage could have possibly been bisexual or lesbians,
but did not identify as such in these times. It is believed that Susan B.
Anthony lived as a spinster her entire life and Anthonys niece, Lucy, had
an intimate partnership with Methodist activist Anna Howard Shaw.
(Holsinger, 21) These thoughts are merely speculation, but show that in many
movements that seek to improve womens status in society, lesbians are
often at their leadership.
There were, however, many moments in history when homosexuals were
persecuted for their desires in a partner. The most well-known of these
times was the Holocaust. In an effort to preserve his “Aryan race”, Hitler
accused homosexuality as “socially aberrant” and persecuted any man
suspected of homosexual tendencies. Between 1933 and 1945, it is estimated
that more than 100,000 men were arrested on homosexual charges, and a
whopping half of said men were actually convicted. (Taylor, 59) While most
men convicted of a crime were sentenced into normal prisons, homosexuals
were sent to
concentration camps. Most documentation of homosexuals treatment was erased
or covered up in records, as survivors were too ashamed to tell their
stories and early historians put off the erasure as unworthy of mention the
prostitutes, homosexuals, perverts, and common criminals incarcerated by the
Nazis. During the Weimar republic, which preceded
Nazism, homosexuals
created a largely accepted society and subculture. But when Nazism first
started to form, police raided gay bars and clubs and publications that were
associated with homosexuality were destroyed. It even went as far that
citizens were invited to “denounce” homosexuals, or turn them into nazi
police.
Historically, the Roman Catholic Church has been the institution
most responsible for the suffering of the gay community. Through its
interpretation of biblical passages and its embrace of a “natural law”
theology that heavily influenced the secular laws of most of the Western
world, the Church is deeply implicated in, and has sometimes actively
promoted, the brutal persecution of sexually variant people throughout the
Christian era. Notwithstanding the hatred that the Church has fomented
against sexual minorities, at some points in its history, it has served as a
haven for those whose sexual desires were unorthodox. The sex-negative
attitudes of the Church led to the establishment of a celibate male clergy
and of sexually segregated monasteries and convents, which undoubtedly
provided a refuge for individuals who failed to conform