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The study of the '''history of [[homosexuality]]''' attempts to catalog evidence of [[homosexual behavior]] from its earliest occurrences to the present, with this manner of perversion being manifested shown in different sources from ancient times.

''{{Main article: [[|Homosexuality and biblical interpretation]]''}}

Homosexuality, as evidenced by homosexual acts, is or ''homoeroticism'', was manifested not long after the [[fall of man]] and its resultant harmful effects, with man realizing an Adamic nature and its tendency to sin, which may somewhat vary in intensity as to a type of sin.  The history of homosexuality in the Bible may begin in Genesis 9:2-24, in which many Christian scholars believe that [[Ham]], the youngest son of [[Noah]], committed a homosexual act on his father,<ref>[http://www.robgagnon.net/2Views/HomoViaRespNotesRev.pdf Notes to Gagnon’s Essay in the Gagnon-Via Two Views Book, #32, by Robert A. J. Gagnon, Ph.D.]</ref><ref>The Bible and Homosexual Practice, pp. 63-78, 91-110</ref> while the latter was asleep, having been overcome with wine.

Homosexuality is overall revealed in the Bible to be an effect of idolatry,<ref>with the latter being manifest the mother of all sins: Ex. 20:2-5</ref> and which may consist of formal or informal false gods.<ref>a false god being whatever is your ultimate object of affection or allegiance, or source of security</ref> (Is. 44:15-20; Jer. 2:27; Rm. 6:16; 1Jn. 2:16; 5:21)  In [[Romans 1]] clearly shows homosexual behavior to be the apostle Paul delineates stages of degeneration, with homoerotic desire and acts being a product particular effect of making the God of creation, who uniquely created the women of the man and joined them in marriage, into an image of corruptible man. This type of this idolatryis yet seen to be taking place today by pro homosexual authors, which such as Roman Catholic priest Daniel A. Helminiak<ref>pro homosexual priest Daniel Helminiak, Sex and the sacred, p. 192</ref> who assert that the incorruptible [[Jesus Christ]] engaged in homosexual relations. Such extreme blasphemous attempts are refuted by Derrick K. Olliff and Dewey H. Hodges<ref>[http://www.reformed.org/social/index.html?mainframe=http://www.reformed.org/social/hodges_response_helminiak.html A Reformed Response to Daniel Helminiak's Gay Theology]</ref> and others.<ref>[http://www.robgagnon.net/BelovedDisciple.htm] by Robert A. J. Gagnon</ref><ref>[http://www.tektonics.org/gk/gayjesus.html Patrick Holding, Does John 21:20 Show That Jesus Was Gay?]</ref>  Homosexual behavior was especially manifest in Rome and Greece at that time, but which was and is a historical constant among all peoples, in differing but deleterious forms, and with different degrees of [[moral degeneration ]] being realized. For the follower of the Bible therefore, homosexuality is not new, nor unexpected, but neither is it justified, rather it is unequivocally condemned, while God is seen revealed as giving man grace to resist and overcome sin. (Gn. 4:7; Ja. 1:12-15' 1Cor. 6:9-11)

The history of homosexuality as regards the position of Judaism and Christianity is testified to by extra-biblical accounts of ancient historians, commentators and leaders. As concerns Jewish beliefs, Gagnon notes in the study of [[homosexuality and biblical interpretation]], that "every piece of evidence that we have about Jewish views of same-sex intercourse in the Second Temple period and beyond is unremittingly hostile to such behavior.<ref>The Bible and Homosexual Practice, pp. 159-83</ref><ref>[http://www.robgagnon.net/2VOnlineNotes.htm Gagnon, Notes to Gagnon’s Essay in the Gagnon-Via Two Views Book]</ref><ref>Gagnon, The Bible and Homosexual Practice, pp. 159-83</ref>

“As *As for adultery, Moses forbade it entirely, as esteeming it a happy thing that men should be wise in the affairs of wedlock; and that it was profitable both to cities and families that children should be known to be genuine. He also abhorred men’s lying with their mothers, as one of the greatest crimes; and the like for lying with the father’s wife, and with aunts, and sisters, and sons’ wives, as all instances of abominable wickedness. He also forbade a man to lie with his wife when she was defiled by her natural purgation: and not to come near brute beasts; nor to approve of the lying with a male, which was to hunt after unlawful pleasures on account of beauty. To those who were guilty of such insolent behavior, he ordained death for their punishment.” (Antiquities, 3:12.1)<ref>http://www.godrules.net/library/flavius/flaviusb3c12.htm</ref>

*And why do not the Eleans and Thebans abolish that unnatural (para physin) and impudent lust, which makes them lie with males? For they will not shew sufficient sign of their repentance of what they of old thought to be very excellent, and very advantageous in their practices, unless they entirely avoid all such actions for the time to come: nay, such things are inserted into the body of their laws, and had once such a power among the Greeks, that they ascribed these sodomitical practices to the gods themselves, as part of their good character; and indeed it was according to the same manner that the gods married their own sisters. This the Greeks contrived as an apology for their own absurd and unnatural (para physin) pleasures. (Against Apion, 2.273-75)<ref>[http://www.reformed.org/social/index.html?mainframe=http://www.reformed.org/social/response_to_helminiak_2.html A Further Look at Pro-Homosexual Theology, by Derrick K. Olliff and Dewey H. Hodges]</ref>

More abundant are statements by early church leaders on the subject, many of which , though not wholly inspired as the Scriptures, are, manifest a Biblical response to homosexuality, and sometimes also testify to its the existence of homosexuality among the Greeks and Romans.

"*You shall not commit fornication; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not be a corrupter of youth." - Letter of Barnabas 10 (A.D. 74).

"*You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill one that has been born." - Didache 2:2 (A.D. 90).

"*...to expose newly-born children is the part of wicked men; and this we have been taught lest we should do anyone harm and lest we should sin against God, first, because we see that almost all so exposed (not only the girls, but also the males) are brought up to prostitution. And for this pollution a multitude of females and hermaphrodites, and those who commit unmentionable iniquities, are found in every nation...And there are some who prostitute even their own children and wives, and some are openly mutilated for the purpose of sodomy; and they refer these mysteries to the mother of the gods." - Justin Martyr, First Apology 27 (A.D. 151).

"*All honor to that king of the Scythians, whoever Anacharsis was, who shot with an arrow one of his subjects who imitated among the Scythians the mystery of the mother of the gods . . . condemning him as having become effeminate among the Greeks, and a teacher of the disease of effeminacy to the rest of the Scythians." Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks 2 (A.D. 190).

"*For your gods did not even abstain from boys, one having loved Hylas, another Hyacinthus, another Pelops, another Chrysippus, another Ganymede." - Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks 2 (A.D. 190).

"*[A]ll other frenzies of the lusts which exceed the laws of nature, and are impious toward both bodies and the sexes, we banish, not only from the threshold but also from all shelter of the Church, for they are not sins so much as monstrosities." - Tertullian, Modesty 4 (A.D. 220).

"*[T]urn your looks to the abominations, not less to be deplored, of another kind of spectacle…Men spectacle...Men are emasculated, and all the pride and vigor of their sex is effeminated in the disgrace of their enervated body; and he is more pleasing there who has most completely broken down the man into the woman. He grows into praise by virtue of his crime; and the more he is degraded, the more skillful he is considered to be. Such a one is looked upon--oh upon—oh shame!--and looked upon with pleasure…nor pleasure...nor is there wanting authority for the enticing abomination…that abomination...that Jupiter of theirs [is] not more supreme in dominion than in vice, inflamed with earthly love in the midst of his own thunders…now thunders...now breaking forth by the help of birds to violate the purity of boys. And now put the question: Can he who looks upon such things be healthy-minded or modest? Men imitate the gods whom they adore, and to such miserable beings their crimes become their religion." - Cyprian of Carthage, Letters 1:8 (A.D. 253).

“But we do not say so of that mixture that is contrary to nature, or of any unlawful practice; for such are enmity to God. For the sin of Sodom is contrary to nature, as is also that with brute beasts. But adultery and fornication are against the law; the one whereof is impiety, the other injustice, and, in a word, no other than a great sin. But neither sort of them is without its punishment in its own proper nature. For the practicers of one sort attempt the dissolution of the world, and endeavor to make the natural course of things to change for one that is unnatural; but those of the second son — the adulterers — are unjust by corrupting others’ marriages, and dividing into two what God hath made one, rendering the children suspected, and exposing the true husband to the snares of others. And fornication is the destruction of one’s one's own flesh, not being made use of for the procreation of children, but entirely for the sake of pleasure, which is a mark of incontinency, and not a sign of virtue. All these things are forbidden by the laws; for thus say the oracles: Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind. For such a one is accursed, and ye shall stone them with stones: they have wrought abomination.” - Methodius, bishop of Olympus and Patara (AD 260-312), Commentary on the sin of Sodom.

"[The pagans] were addicted to the love of boys, and one of their wise men made a law that pederasty…should not be allowed to slaves, as if it was an honorable thing; and they had houses for this purpose, in which it was openly practiced. And if all that was done among them was related, it would be seen that they openly outraged nature, and there was none to restrain them… As for their passion for boys, whom they called their 'paedica,' it is not fit to be named." - John Chrysostom, Homilies on Titus 5 (A.D. 390]).

"[Christians] abhor all unlawful mixtures, and that which is practiced by some contrary to nature, as wicked and impious." - [[Apostolic Constitutions ]] 6:11 (A.D. 400).

==Extra-biblical recordsHistorical data concerning the history of homosexuality == The two most principal areas of historical inquiry which have been studied by historians in relation to ancient occurrences of homosexuality are [[Greek Homosexuality|Greek homosexuality]] and [[Roman Homosexuality|Roman homosexuality]]. See (see also [[Romans 1]]) but to which other societies, ancient to modern, are included.

The largest amount of material pertinent to the history of homosexuality is from Greece, from notable philosophers and writers such as Plato, Xenophon, Plutarch, and pseudo-Lucian, to plays by Aristophanes, to Greek artwork and vases. James B. De Young notes that homosexuality seems to have existed more widely among the ancient Greeks more than among any other ancient culture. The main form of this was pederasty, a custom that seems to have been practiced mostly among the upper classes, in which an older man (the ''erastest'') would make a young free boy (the ''eromenos'') his sex partner, and become his mentor. This was regulated by the State as an institution. However, this practice was usually a supplement to marriage,<ref>Dover, K.J., Greek Homosexuality (Harvard University Press, 1989, as summarized in "Homosexuality," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, August 2002)</ref> and thus is seen as being done by bisexuals. The practice of pederasty is mentioned in Homer's ''Illiad'', and is evidenced to have existed at least 4500 years ago in ancient Egypt.<ref>[httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=ZXAVf8m_HKgC&pg=PA322&lpg=PA322&dq=Plato%27s+Laws+636c&source=bl&ots=ZjVFYZcdwc&sig=qh8nqrP0-_GCl1p49MgogdYs7E8&hl=en&ei=0sUeSqOxIqbWlQfpnPjPBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=19 Homosexuality, By James B. DeYoung p. 322]</ref>

However===Homosexuality in Rome=== ''See also:'' [[Roman Homosexuality|Roman homosexuality]] After Greece, homosexual "orientation" Rome is also indicated on the part next most significant entity in the history of Callicratidashomosexuality, at least toward boysand this cultural practice in both is understood by scholars as being what the apostle Paul is immediately referring to in condemning homosexuality in [[Romans 1.]]<ref>Homosexuality by James B. DeYoung, pp. 152-192ff</ref> Romans emperors were sometimes the most notorious examples of homosexuality. Edward Gibbon, in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, wrote that "of the first fifteen emperors Claudius was the only one whose taste in love was entirely correct (not homo-sexual].<ref>Edward Gibbon. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. 1, London. 1898, p. 313. note 40</ref>  Juvenal (60-140 A.D.) and Martial (c. 40-102 A.D.) wrote of formal marriage unions between homosexuals. Some moral philosophers around the time of the apostle Paul questioned the merits of homosexual behaviors. Seneca (4 B.C-65 A.D.), a statesmen and tutor to the homosexual emperor Nero, reproved homosexual exploitation, such which which forced a slave to shave his beard, and dress and behave as a women,<ref>Moral epistles 47.7-8</ref> though Nero himself castrated a boy, and dressed him as female and married him, after killing his wife.<ref>Suetonius "Nero," XVIII-XVIX De Vita Caeasarum; Dio Cassius, LXII, xvii</ref> Dio Chrysostom (A.D. 40) likewise condemned such exploitation, and commended ''natural intercourse" and union of the male and female.''<ref>Discourse, 7.133, 135; 151-52; 21:6-10; 77/78.36</ref> Later, in Amores 20 he 226 B.C., the Lex Scantinia (149 B.C.) is said understood to be reluctant have penalized homosexual practice.  According to go psychiatrist and sexual historian Norman Sussman, "In contrast to the temple self-conscious and elaborate efforts of Aphrodite because he was going the Greeks to see something femaleglorify and idealize homosexuality, while Charicles describes those who engage the Romans simply accepted it as a matter of fact and as an inevitable part of human sexual life. Pederasty was just another sexual activity. Many of the most prominent men in Roman society were bisexual if not homosexual sex as having . Julius Caesar was called by his contemporaries every woman's man and every man's woman."bought <ref>Sussman p. 19</ref> Many see Rome realizing a little pleasure at deleterious change in aspects of social morality beginning in the cost second century B.C, due to the influence and adaptation of great disgrace"Asiatic luxury and Greek manners", including homosexuality, resulting in a "moral crises from which she never recovered (historian D.'' Sternly reproving homosexuals he also statesEarl)<ref>Young, ''With what blind insensibility have you engulfed your souls Homosexuality, p. 153</ref> Edward Gibbon, stated in his “History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” that you have missed marital faithfulness in the mark Roman Empire was virtually unknown, and that “The dignity of marriage was restored by the Christians.”<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ib7KaA717U0C&pg=RA1-PA478&lpg=RA1-PA478&dq=Gibbon,+dignity+of+marriage+was+restored+by+the+Christians.%E2%80%9D+p.&source=bl&ots=vLEsgM9AST&sig=Rw9ZVE-9MmInLQORPnl5NNQunxs&hl=en&ei=jbhGSrimC8b6tgeQ0NmMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire. p. 478, by Edward Gibbon, John Bagnell Bury]</ref> ===Homosexuality in both directionsChina=== Art, avoiding what you ought to pursuepoetry, historical and pursuing what you ought legal documents infer or attest to avoid?the practice of homosexuality in China (the type or degree of which is often somewhat dependent on the bias of the researcher, with most major works today being by by pro homosexual writers). The earliest references to such are from the period of the Han Dynasty (Western: 202 B.C. to 9 A.D; Eastern: 25 to 22 A.D.) The '' Da-le-fu'' by Bo Xingjian (22775-826)in an official ancient medical text ''History of the Former Hans Dynasty'' is seen by some to speak of homoeroticism, especially among emperors, in highly euphemistic language.  Heissig states that in the fourteenth century, the Chinese found homosexual Tibetan religious rites practiced at the court of a Mongol emperor.<ref>Walther Heissig, A Lost Civilization</ref> Sex historian Arno Karlen reports that "two Arab travelers trekked through India and China m the ninth century, and in tneir chronicle said the Chinese were addicted to sodomy and even performed it in their shrines."<ref>Arno Kjrlen. Sexuality and Homosexuality. 1971, Norton, p. 229</ref>

Charicles also laments those who attempted basic sex change operations through castration: ''The daring of some men has advanced so far in tyrannical violence as even to wreak sacrilege upon nature with During the knifeSong dynasty (960-1279 A. By depriving males of their masculinity they have found wider ranges of pleasureD. But those who become wretched and luckless ) Tao Gu noted in order to be boys for longer remain male no longer, being a perplexing riddle his ''Records of dual gender, neither being kept for the functions to which they have been born nor yet having the thing into which they have been changed.Extraordinary'' (21)

For his part Callicratidas forwards an polemic that is used today by homosexual apologists, that homosexuality was not seen in early times, "Everywhere people single out Nanhai for intercourse with women was necessary so that our race might not utterly perish for lack of seed"its 'Misty Moon Worships, (35) and postulates that doing away with martial relations would be a good thing, if children could be hand another way, lamenting term referring the efforts women must go through to make custom of esteeming lewdness. Nowadays those in the capital those who sell themselves attractivenumber more than ten thousand . Yet he sees As to the efforts that a child must go through as making him an attractive object of homosexual affection for all menwho offer their bodies for sale, then enter and leave place shamelessly. A law later enacted during Xhenghe reign (381111-461118) which punished male prostitutes with "one hundred strokes of a bamboo rod and a fine of fifty thousand in cash." However, it seems to have fallen into disuse over time.

The famous philosopher [[Plato]] (427 B.C. - 346 B.C.) around 348 B.C. describes and implies the widespread practice of homosexuality, and advocates laws Male prostitutes were known to regulate it.<ref>Laws 636a-c; 835-c; 836a-e; 838b-839b; 840de; 841de</ref> One of the most explicit records of disapproval of homosexuality is found in Laws 636chave their own god, in which Plato, speaking through the character of the Athenian stranger, describes homosexual relations as an "enormity" or "crime" (tolmema), and explains that it derives from being enslaved to pleasure. He plainly rejects homosexual behavior as "unnatural" (para physin), as “When male unites with female for procreation the pleasure experienced is held to be due to nature, but contrary to nature when male mates with male or female with female”Tcheou—Wang.<ref>http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/romans_malick.pdf David E. Malick, "The Condemnation Construction of Homosexuality in Romans 1:26-27"]</ref><ref>[http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9406/opinion/opinion.html First Things, Peter Lby David F. BergerGreenberg, Leadership Upp.]</ref> Homosexuality is also described regarded as shameful by barbarians and by those who live under despotic governments: ''Homosexuality is regarded as shameful by barbarians and by those who live under despotic governments just as philosophy is regarded as shameful by them, because it is apparently not in the interest of such rulers to have great ideas engendered in their subjects, or powerful friendships or passionate love161-all of which homosexuality is particularly apt to produce.''<ref>Quoted by John Boswell in "The Church and the Homosexual: An Historical Perspective" (1979).62</ref><

In Plutarch's ''Dialogue on Love''<ref>Dialogue on Love 751C, E</ref>, he has Daphnaeus disparage "union contrary to nature with males" During the latter part of the Ming Dynasty (he para physin homilia pros arrenas1368-1644 A.D.), as contrasted to "the love between men and womenXie Zhaozhe," which is characterized as "natural" (te physei1567-1624). A few sentences later, Daphnaeus complains that those who "consort with males" willingly are guilty - a contemporary of "weakness and effeminacyShakespeare - recorded in his encyclopedia," because "contrary to nature the Wu za zu (para physinFivehold Miscellany)," they "allow themselves in Plato's words 'to be covered and mounted like cattle'" (Dialogue on Love 751C, E). However, he also wrote that "The noble lover of beauty engages in love wherever he sees excellence and splendid natural endowment without regard for any difference in physiological detail"<ref>Plutarch, Dialogue on Love, 146.</ref>, and which many use to endorse homosexuality.

PlatoIn today's SymposiumPeking, a collection of ideas on love by several friends of Socrates, with there are young boys singers who go to all the lattergentry's thoughts at the endwine parties, acknowledges homosexuality as a condition. Aristophanes posits that there were three kinds of beings from the beginning, that of the male, the female - and a third androgynous - type of person. Zeus is said to have cut these humans in half so that they seek their other sexual counterpart, or in the case of composite being, their own sex. Aristophanes then describes the latter as being such as prefer their own gender, in which he includes lesbianism, and all of which the pagan philosopher commends.Young notes that in Symposium,<ref>182e-184b, 186b-e, 187c, 192b-c, 193c, 200a-201c-e</ref> Plato anticipates virtually every element in the modern discussion the homosexual condition. This reality stands in opposition to the premise which no matter how many pro-homosexual writers rely upon, in seeking to disallow the universal condemnation of homoeroticism in [[Romans 1]].<ref>Young, Homosexualityofficial prohibitions there are, ppeverybody uses them. 189-204</ref>

Additional sources in Plato's Symposium which evidence and advocate homosexuality in Greek cultureA fuller description of homosexual relations, including some and one that speak of a predisposition towards itmay be likened to [[same-sex marriage]], include The Speech is found in the writings of Pausanias Ming commentator Shen Defu (181b1578-185c1642), The speech which tells of Socrates (209c-d; 210e-211e)homosexual relationships which sometimes were part of the family order in the southern province of Fujian. The Speech He states that among all social ranks and physical attractiveness, Fujianese men found a same sex partner of Alcibiades their status, with the older becoming a "brother" to the younger (215a-222ba custom termed ''nanfeng'')and paying for his later marriage to a female. Selections from "And that at the Phaedrus (231c-240c) also give indications of how homosexuality was thought age of thirty they are still sleeping in Greek philosophythe same bed like husband and wife.<ref>Young" However, Homosexualitythis is not known to have lasted more than twenty years, ppas they were to later marry a female. 205-214</ref>

Though In the Greeks also practiced homosexual relations existed among equals, it was considered problematic, as while latter part of the predominate man was considered to be masculine, 16th century Roman Catholic missionaries commented on the one who played the female role would be seen as inferiorperverse homosexual practices they saw in China.<ref>John Boardman et alIn a book published in 1569, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of Dominican Gaspar da Cruz attributed the Classical World, 1986, pp[[earthquakes]] which had recently shaken China (its most fatal earthquake in history was in 1556 [http://www. 225-226drgeorgepc.<com/ref> In Amores 24, Charicles invokes Plato as saying that "as long as his beard was not yet fully grown, he was beloved by allEarthquakesChina. But, html]) to being due to their indifference to [[sodomy]]. Shortly after he had passed from boyhood to manhood, during the years when his hitherto immature intellect now had its full powers of reasonarrival in 1583, he noted Jesuit astronomer Matteo Ricci found that male [[prostitution]] was hated by all." This role more likely pertained to slaves, or male youths who were not yet citizens. lawful and practiced openly:

Attitudes toward homosexuality varied in Greece, as general strictures against same-sex eros existed in parts there are public streets full of Ioniaboys dressed up like prostitutes. And there are people who buy these boys and teach them to play music, while in Elis sing and Boiotia (e.gdance.And than, Thebes)gallantly dressed up and made up with rouge like women, it was approved of and sometimes celebratedthese miserable men are initiated into this terrible vice.<ref>cfSpence (1984: p. Dover, 1989; Halperin, 1990220)</ref>

===Homosexuality He also wrote to his superior lamenting "the horrible sin to which everyone here is much given, and about which there seems to be no shame or impediment." No long before his death in Rome===1610, he grieved that such was "neither forbidden by law nor thought to be illicit, nor even a cause of shame. It is spoken of in public, practiced everywhere, without there being anyone to prevent it."

After Greece, Rome is the next most significant entity in the history of homosexuality, and this cultural practice in both is understood by scholars as being what the apostle Paul is immediately referring to in condemning homosexuality in [[Romans 1.]]<ref>Homosexuality by James B. DeYoung, pp. 152-192ff</ref> Romans emperors were sometimes the most notorious examples of homosexuality. Juvenal An official Chinese historian named Mao Qiling (601623-140 A.D.) and Martial (c. 40-102 A.D.1716) wrote of formal marriage unions between homosexuals. Some moral philosophers around the time of the apostle Paul questioned the merits of homosexual behaviors. Seneca in a supplementary historical account regarding Emperor Wuzong (4 B.C1491-65 A.D.1521), that had a statesmen passion of military uniforms and tutor to the homosexual emperor Neromaneuvers, reproved homosexual exploitationand broke precedent by sleeping at his new Leopard House, such which which forced a slave to shave accommodated his beard, and dress and behave as a women,<ref>Moral epistles 47generals.7-8</ref> though Nero himself castrated a boyHe had so close friendship with one general in particular, that is recorded that they sleep and dressed him as female and married him, after killing his wife.<ref>Suetonius "Nero," XVIII-XVIX De Vita Caeasarum; Dio Cassius, LXII, xvii</ref> Dio Chrysostom rose with together (A.D. 40) likewise condemned such exploitation, and commended ''natural intercourse" and union of the male and female.''<ref>Discourse, 7.133, 135; 151tong wo-52; 21:6-10; 77/78.36</ref> Later, in 226 B.C., the Lex Scantinia (149 B.C.qi) is understood to have penalized homosexual practice.

Many see Rome realizing a deleterious change in aspects of social morality beginning in Open sexual expression was expanded under the second century BMing Dynasty (1368-1644 A.CD.), but increasing moral disorder, due to the influence and adaptation of "Asiatic luxury and Greek manners"invasion by warriors who captured Peking in 1644, including homosexualityestablishing the Qing Dynasty, resulting worked to somewhat morally awaken China, and resulted in a "laws for moral crises from which she never recovered (historian Dreform. Earl)<ref>YoungChinese conservatives labored to restore the more chaste values of orthodox Confucianism, Homosexualitywhile the Manchu conquerors sought to discourage fornication, pincluding sexual offenses between males. 153</ref>The second Qing Emperor, Kang Xi, was an esteemed ruler who was hostile to pederasty and child prostitution, and declared that he himself was not waited on by "pretty boys."

===Homosexuality In 1679 extensive legislation was written and confirmed in Egypt=== the Qing code of 1740, which made the abduction and rape of boys under twelve a capital crime, and penalized consensual sodomy with one hundred strokes of the heavy bamboo, and the wearing of the cangue (a flat wooden board) for one month. As in Biblical law, it appears that actually being caught in the act was required, and enforcement seems to have been rather selective. However, Kang Xi's own son and heir to the throne was found to be sexually involved with palace officials, and was executed.<ref>Homosexuality & Civilization, pp. 224-228,237-239, by Louis Crompton (pro homosexual)</ref>

The [[Old Testament]] Despite these reforms, later some Qing rulers are said to have engaged in homosexual relationships, and China saw a resurgence of homosexuality. Even during the Bible mentions Egypt as one reign of the nations exampling sins which Israel Kang Xi a contemporary writer wrote that "it is considered bad taste not to avoid, including homosexualityhave singing boys around when inviting guests for dinner. (Lv. 18:3) " While no legal texts are yet possessedArt began to abandoned its discrete nature in relation to sexual expression, other stories testify of homosexual acts and attitudesbegan to make the sexual act explicit. <ref>Passions of the Cut Sleeve, p. 146, by Bret Hinsch</ref>

The earliest and longest version of Englishman John Barrow, secretary to the Contendings Macartney Embassy of Horus and Seth (Greek transliterations1793, or Heru and Set from Egyptian), dated c. 1160 B.C., late in later the 20th Dynasty in founder of the New KingdomRoyal Geographical Society, with elements of religious mythology which are likely older, tells of Set, who is before manifested as heterosexual, perpetrating a homosexual act upon Horus. This is seen as shameful by stated in Ruler Ennead. Seth is also said to have become pregnant by eating lettuce with the semen of Horus on it, placed there by his mother.<ref>The Contendings of Horus and Seth, by Khenmetaset and Marie Parsons</ref> An earlier version ''Travels in China'' (est. 2,000 B.C.1806) is similar. from Kahun, from Griffith, F., Hieratic Papyri from Kahun and Gurob, 1908</ref> Historians see this indicating that to be anally penetrated was looked upon as humiliating and shameful.<ref>Montserrat, 1996, p. 71; Bullough, p. 65.</ref>

The Egyptian Book Many of the Dead (c. 14.50 century B.C.) is the name given by Egyptologists first officers of state seemed to a collection of mortuary texts written on sheets of papyrus covered with magical texts and accompanying illustrations. The earliest record of Book of the Dead is dated from approx. 1650-1550 B.C., though it is thought that some of the spells originated make no hesitation in the Pyramid Texts carved more than 1000 years earlier.<ref>publicly avowing [http://www.touregypt.net/boda.htmhomosexuality] The Book of the Dead, An Introduction!"</ref><ref>[http://wwwSir John Barrow.egyptologyonline.com/book_of_the_dead.htm The book of the dead, EGYPTOLOGY ONLINE]</ref> In chapter 125 are two sets of “negative confessions”, Travels in which the deceased was to testify before Osiris and forty-two other gods of his righteousness and worthiness of eternal lifeChina. In the first set of declarations (before Osiris) is the statement (as translated), ''I have not penetrated the penetrater of a penetrater''<ref>[Book of the Dead Chapter 125A http://wwwT.digitalegyptCadell & W.ucl.ac.uk/literature/religious/bd125a.html]</ref>, while in the second set (before the 42 judges) it is declared Davics (as translatedLondon), ''I have committed no acts of impurity nor have I had sexual intercourse with a man.''<ref>[The Book of the Dead, chapter 1251804 Cited In Karlen, by Richard Hooker http://wwwop.wsucit .edu/~dee/EGYPT/BOD125p.HTM]229</ref>

Part Barrows also wrote that the exclusion of an incomplete text dating from approximately 2200 B.C. has been termed, ''Neferkare’s Affair with General Sisene.'' It tells of a common man discovering that King Neferkare (Pepi 2) was making regular nightly visit to a man living without a wife,<ref>Egyptian Myth: A Very Short Introduction, by Geraldine Pinch</ref> and which may imply a homosexual affair as part women had the effect of royal corruption.<ref>Egyptologist J. Gywn Griffths</ref>

The Teaching "promoting that sort of Vizier Ptahhotep (c. 2200 B.C.)connexion which, has being one of the greatest violations of nature, ought to be considered among the first of moral crimes - a difficult connexion that sinks a man many degrees below the brute. The commission of this detestable and unnatural act is attended to translate text (32) which may read, ''Do not copulate with a womanso little sense of shame, or feeling of delicacy, that many first officers of state seemed to make no hesitation in publicly avowing it. Each of these officer is attended to by his pipe-bearer, who is generally a handsome boy,for You know that one will fight against the water upon her heartfrom fourteen to eighteen years of age, and is always well dressed.''<ref>The Maxims of Good DiscourseHinsch, by vizier Ptahhotepp. 141</ref>

LaterIn Judaism's Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism Rejected Homosexuality, a homosexual liaison is described between Dennis Prager also notes that the Governor low state of Egypt C. Vibius Maximus (103-107 A. D.) women has been linked to widespread homosexuality, and writes that a 17 year old ''still beardless...and handsome youth'' who ate and traveled with him rather than attending school and French physician reported from China in the gymnasium. His sexual relations with the politician nineteenth century that, "Chinese women were knownsuch docile, homebound dullards that the men, like those of ancient Greece, sought courtesans and the young man is described as exhibiting an attitude often seen in contemporary society today: boys."

Once accustomed to this shame this handsome and rich young youth gave himself airs and became so impudentIn contrast, a commentator of Napoleonic France provided commendation for such..in the presence of everyone<ref>Crompton, and laughed long and freely in the middle of the clientspp.239-240</ref>

Partly because of this conduct Sir Richard Burton summed up the Governor incurred ''damnatio memoriaem''Chinese in these words: "their systematic bestiality with ducks, with his name being removed from public documentsgoats and other animals is equaled only by their pederasty."<ref>R. SymeSir Richard Burton, C. Vibius MaximusThe Erotic Traveler, Prefect of Egypt, Historia 6 (1957), p1967. 184</ref><ref>After Paul left Corinth, by Bruce WNorton. Winter, Cited in Karlen p. 114230</ref>

Eberhardt understands that "Chinese Buddhism considered homosexuality to be a minor transgression." <ref>Wolfram Eberhardt, Guilt and Sin in Traditional China. 1967. University of California, pp. 29-32. Cited in Greenberg, p. 26l. note 101</ref> A western visitor to the port city of Tianjin estimated that there were approximately eight hundred boys in its thirty-five brothels, trained for pederastic prostitution.<ref>Hinsch, p. 141</ref> However, homoeroticism apparently was not a religious part of Chinese folk religion, as "the Chinese were shocked and indignant at the homoerotic Tibetan rites practiced at the court of Shun-Ti Heissig, the last Mongul emperor in the fourteenth century."<ref>1996; pp. 52-54, referenced by Greenberg, p. 161</ref> During the Chinese cultural revolution (1966–76), government considered homosexuality to be a social offense or a form of mental illness, and homosexuality is said to been punished more than in all previous times. In 1989 the "Chinese Classification and Diagnostic Criteria of Mental Disorders", released by the Chinese Psychiatric Association, defined homosexuality as a "psychiatric disorder of sexuality", providing more tolerance toward this class of sin.<ref>Shanghai Star October 4, 2002</ref> ===Homosexuality in Japan=== Greenberg understands that during the feudal age in Japan, homosexuality flourished among military aristocracy, "with samurai sometimes fighting duels on behalf of their lovers",<ref>Greenberg, p 260</ref> and that Japanese Buddhism appears to have disregarded homosexuality.<ref>Greenberg, p. 261, note 101</ref>  [[Buddhist]] [[monks]] are said to not have allowed intercourse with women, though "male partners were not explicitly prohibited, and that many monks took youthful male lovers, a practice that was considered quite acceptable..." "Legal codes of the period do not even mention homosexuality." <ref>Greenberg, p. 261</ref> ===Homosexuality among the Celts=== [[Aristotle]] stated that the Celts esteemed homosexuality."<ref>Politics 2 9 7 Cited in Greenberg, p 111</ref> In addition, Diodorus Siculus wrote in the first century B.C., "The men are much keener on their own sex; they lie around on animal skins and enjoy themselves, with a lover on each side. Furthermore, this isn't looked down on, or regarded in any way disgraceful."<ref>Cited in Gerhard Herm. The Celts. St Martin's. 1977. p 58.</ref> ===Homosexuality among the America Indians===  Pre-Columbian Americas: In North America, the Spanish and French explorers and missionaries who visited the New World quickly became aware of widespread Indian transvestism (men dressing as women) and homosexuality. Writing in 1776, Father Charlevoix, a [[Jesuit]] [[priest]], found the Iroquois to have “an excess of effeminacy and lewdness. There are men unashamed to wear women’s clothing and to practice all the occupations of women, from which follows corruption that I cannot express. They pretend that its usage comes from their religion. These effeminates never marry and abandon themselves to the most infamous passions.” Greenberg reports that there was widespread male homosexuality among the Mayans in Central America: “A strong homosexual component pervades close friendships of young married Mayan men as well as bachelors in southern Mexico and among Guatemalan Indians.” Among the Aztecs, “Sodomy was virtually universal, involving even children as young as six. Cortez also found sodomy to be widespread among the Aztecs, and admonished them to give it up – along with human sacrifice and cannibalism. One of the Aztec gods, [[Xochipili]], was the patron of male homosexuality and male prostitution.”<ref>[http://vesler.blogspot.com/2006/04/why-judaism-rejected-homos_114634268752564895.html Why Judaism Rejected Homosexuality -- Part 2, referencing Greenberg]</ref> ===Homosexuality in other civilizationsancient Mesopotamia===

Greenberg states that in Mesopotamiam Hammurabi, the author of the famous legal code bearing his name, had male lovers (Greenberg, p.&nbsp;126)  In addition, it is understood that Assyrian men prayed for divine blessing on homosexual love.<ref>[Reallexicon der Assyriologie p. 465</ref> This is seen to stand in contrast to the Bible, which nowhere offers sanction for homoeroticism, in contrast to its explicit Divine blessing on heterosexual relations in marriage. The Bible is also seen to separately forbid homosexual activity near the Temple, (Dt. 23:17,18) this likely being homosexual prostitutes, called ''dogs''.

Homosexuality in itself is thus nowhere condemned as [[licentiousness]], as immorality, as social disorder, or as transgressing any human or divine law. Anyone could practise it freely, just as anyone could visit a prostitute, provided it was done without violence and without compulsion, and preferably as far as taking the passive role was concerned, with specialists.'' <ref>Reallexicon der Assyriologie pp. 4, 467, 68</ref>

====Among the Hittites====, Law 189 states, ''If a man violates his daughter it is a capital crime. If a man violates his son, it is a capital crime''. However, the violation here may be more due to its incestuous nature, than the homosexual aspect.<ref>H. A. Hoffner, 'Incest, Sodomy, and Bestiality in the Ancient Near East' in (Orient and Occident: Essays in Honor of C. H. Gordon, Neukirchen, Neukirchener Verlag [1973]), 83</ref>

Among ===Homosexuality among the Hittites, Law 189 states, ''If a man violates his daughter it is a capital crime. If a man violates his son, it is a capital crime''. However, the violation here may be more due to its incestuous nature, than the homosexual aspect.<ref> H. A. Hoffner, 'Incest, Sodomy, and Bestiality in the Ancient Near East' in (Orient and Occident: Essays in Honor of C. H. Gordon, Neukirchen, Neukirchener Verlag [1973]), 83.</ref>Jews===

ArtIsrael was established as an overall victorious nation as they overall followed God, poetryas He promised. (Dt. 28) However, historical and legal documents infer or attest when Israel backslid into idolatry then homosexuality was seen among them, though it is not evidenced to have degenerated past the practice stage of homosexuality in China idolatrous ceremony, (Dt. 23:17,18) into pederasty and household homoeroticism. What was sanctioned by the type or degree of which is often somewhat dependent on temple set the moral example for the bias rest of the researchernation, with most major works today being by by pro homosexual writers0. The earliest references and when Israel responded to such are from the period chastening of God under good kings, then cultic prostitutes were driven out of the Hans Dynasty (Western: 202 Bland.C(1Kg. to 9 A.D14:24; Eastern15: 25 to 12; 22 A.D:46; 2Kg.23:7) The ''Da-le-fu'' by Bo Xingjian (775-826) in an official ancient medical text ''History of the Former Hans Dynasty'' is seen by some to speak of homoeroticism, especially among emperors, in highly euphemistic language.

During The terrible chastisements Israel suffered, after being warned by God for hundreds of years to return to obedient faith, appears to have cured them from outward idolatry, and homosexuality in any form. The author of the Song dynasty Syballine Oracles, thought to be an Egyptian Jew (960approx. 163 -1279 A45 B.DC.), Tao Gu noted in his ''Records of compared Jews to the Extraordinary''other nations, stating,

Everywhere people single out Nanhai for its 'Misty Moon Worshops, a term referring the custom The Jews "are mindful of esteeming lewdness. Nowadays those in the capital those who sell themselves number more than ten thousand . As to the men who offer their bodies for saleholy wedlock, then enter and leave place shamelessly. A law later enacted during Xhenghe reign (1111-1118) which punished male prostitutes they do not engage in impious intercourse with "one hundred strokes of a bamboo rod male children, as do Phoenicians, Egyptians, and a fine Romans, specious Greece and many nations of fifty thousand in cashothers, Persians and Galatians and all Asia." However<ref>Greenberg, it seems to have fallen into disuse over timep. 200, footnote 88</ref>

Male prostitutes were known In contemporary times, according to have their own godsex researcher sex historian Arno Karlen, Tcheou--Wang.<ref>The Construction [[Alfred Kinsey]] (who was an [[Atheism|atheist]]) stated that "homosexuality was phenomenally rare among Orthodox Jews" (even though his flawed research otherwise exaggerated the number of Homosexuality By David F. Greenberg, pphomosexuals). 161-62</ref>

During the latter part of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.), Xie Zhaozhe, (1567-1624) - a contemporary of Shakespeare - recorded ===Homosexuality in his encyclopedia, the Wu za zu (Fivehold Miscellany), Egypt===

In today's Peking, there are young boys singers who go to all The [[Old Testament]] of the gentry's wine partiesBible mentions Egypt as one of the nations exampling sins which Israel is to avoid, and including homosexuality. (Lv. 18:3) While no matter how many official prohibitions there legal texts areyet possessed, everybody uses themother stories testify of homosexual acts and attitudes.

A fuller description of homosexual relations, The earliest and one that may be likened to [[same-sex marriage]], is found in longest version of the writings Contendings of Ming commentator Shen Defu Horus and Seth (1578-1642Greek transliterations, or Heru and Set from Egyptian), which tells of homosexual relationships which sometimes were part of dated c. 1160 B.C., late in the family order 20th Dynasty in the southern province New Kingdom, with elements of Fujian. He states that among all social ranks and physical attractivenessreligious mythology which are likely older, Fujianese men found a same sex partner tells of their statusSet, with the older becoming who is before manifested as heterosexual, perpetrating a "brother" homosexual act upon Horus. This is seen as shameful by Ruler Ennead. Seth is also said to have become pregnant by eating lettuce with the younger (a custom termed ''nanfeng'') and paying for semen of Horus on it, placed there by his later marriage to a femalemother. "And that at the age <ref>The Contendings of thirty they are still sleeping in the same bed like husband Horus and wifeSeth, by Khenmetaset and Marie Parsons</ref> An earlier version (est." However2, this 000 B.C.) is not known to have lasted more than twenty yearssimilar.<ref>from Kahun, as they were from Griffith, F., Hieratic Papyri from Kahun and Gurob, 1908</ref> Historians see this indicating that to later marry a femalebe anally penetrated was looked upon as humiliating and shameful.<ref>Montserrat, 1996, p. 71; Bullough, p. 65.</ref>

In the latter part The Egyptian Book of the 16th Dead (c. 14.50 century Roman Catholic missionaries commented B.C.) is the name given by Egyptologists to a collection of mortuary texts written on sheets of papyrus covered with magical texts and accompanying illustrations. The earliest record of Book of the perverse homosexual practices they saw in ChinaDead is dated from approx. 1650-1550 B.C. In a book published in 1569, Dominican Gaspar da Cruz attributed though it is thought that some of the spells originated in the Pyramid Texts carved more than 1000 years earlier.<ref>[[earthquakeshttp://www.touregypt.net/boda.htm]] which had recently shaken China (its most fatal earthquake in history was in 1556The Book of the Dead, An Introduction</ref><ref>[http://www.drgeorgepcegyptologyonline.com/EarthquakesChinabook_of_the_dead.htmlhtm The book of the dead, EGYPTOLOGY ONLINE]) </ref> In chapter 125 are two sets of “negative confessions”, in which the deceased was to being due to their indifference to [testify before Osiris and forty-two other gods of his righteousness and worthiness of eternal life. In the first set of declarations (before Osiris) is the statement (as translated), ''I have not penetrated the penetrater of a penetrater'',<ref>[sodomy]]Book of the Dead Chapter 125A http://www. Shortly after his arrival digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/literature/religious/bd125a.html]</ref> while in 1583the second set (before the 42 judges) it is declared (as translated), noted Jesuit astronomer Matteo Ricci found that male ''I have committed no acts of impurity nor have I had sexual intercourse with a man.''<ref>[[prostitution]] was lawful and practiced openlyThe Book of the Dead, chapter 125, by Richard Hooker http: //www.wsu.edu/~dee/EGYPT/BOD125.HTM]</ref>

there are public streets full Part of boys dressed up like prostitutesan incomplete text dating from approximately 2200 B. And there are people who buy these boys and teach them to play music, sing and danceC. And thanhas been termed, gallantly dressed up and made up ''Neferkare's Affair with rouge like women, these miserable men are initiated into this terrible viceGeneral Sisene.'' It tells of a common man discovering that King Neferkare (Pepi 2) was making regular nightly visit to a man living without a wife,<ref>Spence (1984Egyptian Myth: pA Very Short Introduction, by Geraldine Pinch</ref> and which may imply a homosexual affair as part of royal corruption. 220)<ref>Egyptologist J. Gywn Griffths</ref>

He also wrote to his superior lamenting "the horrible sin The Teaching of Vizier Ptahhotep (c. 2200 B.C.), has a difficult to translate text (32) which everyone here is much givenmay read, and about which there seems to be no shame or impediment." No long before his death in 1610''Do not copulate with a woman-boy, he grieved for You know that such was "neither forbidden by law nor thought to be illicit, nor even a cause of shameone will fight against the water upon her heart. It is spoken ''<ref>The Maxims of in publicGood Discourse, practiced everywhere, without there being anyone to prevent it." by vizier Ptahhotep</ref>

An official Chinese historian named Mao Qiling (1623- 1716) wrote in Later, a supplementary historical account regarding Emperor Wuzong homosexual liaison is described between the Governor of Egypt C. Vibius Maximus (1491103-1521107 A. D.), that had and a passion of military uniforms 17 year old ''still beardless...and maneuvers, handsome youth'' who ate and traveled with him rather than attending school and broke precedent by sleeping at his new Leopard House, which accommodated his generalsthe gymnasium. He had so close friendship His sexual relations with one general in particularthe politician were known,that and the young man is recorded that they sleep and rose with together (tong wo-qi).described as exhibiting an attitude often seen in contemporary society today:

Open sexual expression was expanded under the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AOnce accustomed to this shame this handsome and rich young youth gave himself airs and became so impudent.D.), but increasing moral disorder, and invasion by warriors who captured Peking in 1644, establishing the Qing Dynasty, worked to somewhat morally awaken Chinapresence of everyone, and resulted laughed long and freely in laws for moral reform. Chinese conservatives labored to restore the more chaste values middle of orthodox Confucianism, while the Manchu conquerors sought to discourage fornication, including sexual offenses between males. The second Qing Emperor, Kang Xi, was an esteemed ruler who was hostile to pederasty and child prostitution, and declared that he himself was not waited on by "pretty boysclients."

In 1679 extensive legislation was written and confirmed in the Qing code Partly because of 1740, which made this conduct the abduction and rape of boys under twelve a capital crimeGovernor incurred ''damnatio memoriaem'', and penalized consensual sodomy with one hundred strokes his name being removed from public documents.<ref>R. Syme, C. Vibius Maximus, Prefect of the heavy bambooEgypt, and the wearing of the cangue Historia 6 (a flat wooden board1957) for one month. As in Biblical law, it appears that actually being caught in the act was required, and enforcement seems to have been rather selective. However, Kang Xi's own son and heir to the throne was found to be sexually involved with palace officials, and was executedp. 184</ref>Homosexuality & Civilization<ref>After Paul left Corinth, ppby Bruce W. 224-228Winter,237-239, by Louis Crompton (pro homosexual)p. 114</ref>

Despite these reforms, later some Qing rulers are said to have engaged ===Homosexuality in homosexual relationships, and China saw a resurgence of homosexuality. Even during the reign of Kang Xi a contemporary writer wrote that "it is considered bad taste not to have singing boys around when inviting guests for dinner." Art began to abandoned its discrete nature in relation to sexual expression, Arab and began to make the sexual act explicit.<ref> Passions of the Cut Sleeve, p. 146, by Bret Hinsch</ref> Englishman John Barrow, secretary to the Macartney Embassy of 1793, wrote in his "Travels in China" that the exclusion of women had the effect of Islamic worlds===

Greenberg contends that male homosexuality has been "promoting that sort of connexion which, being one of the greatest violations of nature, ought to be considered among the first of moral crimes - a connexion that sinks a man many degrees below the brute. The commission of this detestable pervasive and unnatural act is attended to with so little sense of shame, or feeling of delicacy, that many first officers of state seemed to make no hesitation highly visible" in publicly avowing it. Each of these officer is attended to by his pipe-bearer, who is generally a handsome boy, from fourteen to eighteen years of age, the Arab and is always well dressedIslamic worlds.<ref>HinschGreenberg, p. 141175</ref>

In contrastA Dutch traveler among the Moguls (Muslims who ruled in India), wrote that male homosexuality "is not only universal in practice among them, but extends to a commentator of Napoleonic France provided commendation for suchbestial communication with brutes, and in particular with sheep."<ref>CromptonJohan Stavorinus, Voyages to the East Indies, G G. Robinson (London), 1798, pp. 239453-24057. Cited in Grcenberg, p. 180.</ref>

A western John Chardin, a visitor to Persia the port city late seventeenth century, reported that he had found "numerous houses of Tianjin estimated male prostitution, but none offering females;" and "some of the greatest Persian love poetry is written to boys."<ref>Greenberg , p. 180</ref>  Louis Dupree, perhaps the West's leading scholar on Afghanistan, wrote in his 1973 book on Afghanistan chat male homosexuality remains common there. (Louis Dupree, Afghani- stan, Princeton University, 1973, p.&nbsp;198.) Khaled El-Rouayheb in ''Before homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic world'', 1500-1800" states that "Arabic literature of the Ottoman period (1516-1798) is replete with causal and sometimes sympathetic references to homosexual love", most of it pederastic in content, such as between poets and young boys.  In his ''Music from a Distant Drum'', Bernard Lewis writes that  Homosexuality is condemned and forbidden by the holy law of Islam, but there are times and places in Islamic history when the ban on homosexual love seems no stronger than the ban on adultery in, say, Renaissance Italy or seventeenth century France. Some [of the Arabic, Persian and Turkish] poems are openly homosexual; some poets, in their collected poems, even have separate sections for love poems addressed to males and females. In ''The Venture of Islam'' author Marshal Hodegson wrote that in medieval Islamic civilization,  despite strong Shari disapproval, the sexual relations of a mature man with a subordinate youth were approximately eight hundred so readily accepted in middle class circles that there was little or no efforts to conceal their existence. The fashion entered poetry, especially the Persians.  Records from European travelers attest to the prevalence such, with the content of some revealing the distinction in cultural attitudes. One example is from Englishman Joseph Pitts, a sailor who was captured and sold into slavery at Algiers in 1678 but escaped fifteen years later. He later stated,  The horrible sin of Sodomy is so far from being punish'd among them, that it is part of their ordinary Discourse to boast of their detestable Actions of that kind. 'Tis common for Men there to fall in love with Boys, as 'tis here in England to be in love with Women.  The French traveler C. S. Sonnini, after visiting Egypt between 1777 and 1780, similary noted,  The passion contrary to nature...the inconceivable appetite which dishonored the Greek and Persians of antiquity, constitute the delight, or, to use a juster term, the infamy of the Egyptians. It is not for the women that that their amorous ditties are composed: it is not on them that tender caresses are lavished; far different objects inflame them.  Affirming this contrast, Muslim travelers who "rediscovered Europe" in the first half of the 1800s found it notable that the European men were ''not'' found courting or eulogizing male youth. Moroccan scholar Muhammad Al-Saffar, who visited Paris in 1845–46, recorded,  Flirtation, romance, and courtship for them take place only with women, for they are not inclined to boys or young men. Rather, that is extremely disgraceful to them.  Likewise, El-Rouayheb also writes that Egyptian scholar Rifa'ah Rafi' al-Tahtaw who was in its thirtyParis between 1826 and 1831, noted,  Amongst the laudable traits of their character, similar really to those of the Bedouin, is their not being inclined to toward loving male youths and eulogizing them in poetry, for this is something unmentionable for them and contrary to their nature and morals. One of the positive aspects of their language and poetry is that it does not permit the saying of love poetry of someone of the same sex.<ref>Before homosexuality in the Arab-five brothelsIslamic world, 1500-1800,by Khaled El-Rouayheb, pp. 1-3</ref> ===Homosexuality in England=== Homosexuality was known to occur to certain degrees in [[England]]. [[Saint Boniface]] wrote in 744 that the people of England "have been leading a shameful life, despising lawful marriages, committing adultery and lusting after the fashion of cutlic people of Sodom. "<ref>Peter Coleman. Christian Attitudes to Homosexuality, 1980, SPCK (London), p 131 Cited in Greenberg, p. 250</ref> Yet especially in latter times England is evidenced to possesses a healthy abhorrence of homosexuality, with both laws and the public attitude being contrary to it.<ref>Rictor Norton (Ed.), Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Updated 31 May 2009</ref>  Sodomy (buggery) was described as "a sin against nature" and was prohibited as a capital offense along with bestiality from 1533 until 1861, which saw the penalty reduced to 10 years to life in prison. Later legislation broadened the description while lessening the penalty.<ref>History Of Homosexuality In Europe, 1919-1939. pp. 305-06, by Florence Tamagne (X rated, w/ pro homosexual bias)</ref>  Prior to this a number of medieval legal sources do discuss "sodomy."<ref>The Law in England, www.fordham.edu</ref>  A German traveler wrote in 1768,  The English women are so handsome, and the desire to please them, and to obtain their favours, is so ardent and so general, that it is not in the least surprising, that those islanders should hold a certain unnatural crime in the utmost abhorrence. They speak in no part of the world with so much horror of this infamous passion, as in England. The punishment by law is imprisonment, and the pillory. It is very uncommon to see a person convicted, trained and punished for pederastic this crime; not on account of the paucity of the numbers charged with perpetrating it, but because they never yield to such a brutal appetite but with the utmost precaution.<ref>M. D’Archenholz, A Picture of England, 2 vols, London, 1789, vol. 2, pp. 102-4.</ref><ref>Rictor Norton (Ed.), "A Picture of England, 1789," Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. 6 January 2005</ref>  The Societies for Reformation of Manners was founded in 1690, and by 1701 there were about twenty such Societies. They purposed to clean up public vice, particularly prostitution. Eight or nine members of the society worked undercover to observe gay cruising areas and attract solicitation. From 1707 through 1709, one cleric, "Reverend Bray," directed several raids, in affiliation with Constables who were also members of the Societies. By their annual meeting in 1710 they were able to attest that "our streets have been very much cleansed from the lewd night-walkers and most detestable sodomites."<ref>HinschVictor Norton, pEd. 141, "The Tryal and Conviction of Several Reputed Sodomites, 1707", Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. 1 December 1999, updated 15 June 2008</ref> Attitudes regarding homosexuality varied throughout the history of England, depending on its spiritual condition, and while sodomy between men remained unlawful until the 1930s, increased tolerance toward homosexuality was seen in post [[World War 1]] The precursor to modern sexual revolution is understood by some to have begun among an intellectual class in England termed the ''Neo-Pagans'', whose lifestyle was one of worship of the body, freedom of sexual expression, nudism, etc.<ref>Tamagne</ref> This lifestyle was one which would later characterize the sexual revolution of the 1960s in the West. As seen in Romans 1:25, referring to "those who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen", this resulted in a modern prevalence of [[homosexuality]] in the [[United States]] and England, with its resultant deleterious effects.

Lesbianism was termed ''lesbian passion'' by the Greeks, being derived from the name of the Greek island Lesbos, after its female poet Sappho wrote about love between women.<ref>http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Cities/Lesbos.html</ref> The term sapphism also came to describe traditional sex practices among women through the ages.<ref>Andre, 2003</ref> However, this is not seen as obtaining the same-sex social sanction as pederasty. Nor does Greek mythology offers legends of the goddesses which parallel the homosexual acts seen as having occurred between male Greek gods.

In Lucian's Amores 28, the Greek character Charicles states that it would be better for a women to invade the dominion of male wantonness (homosexuality) than for men to become effeminate, and also warns of lesbianism: ''If you concede homosexual love to males, you must in justice grant the same to females; you will have to sanction carnal intercourse between them; monstrous instruments of lust will have to be permitted, in order that their sexual congress may be carried out; that obscene vocable, tribad, which so rarely offends our ears--I blush to utter it--will become rampant, and Philænis will spread androgynous orgies throughout our harems.'' <ref>[httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=sclZnr2SUIgC&pg=PA113&lpg=PA113&dq=Amores+of+Lucian,+Charicles&source=bl&ots=wZNTllKdeA&sig=vh6J9B9uPzFXES6yaoyAYfwPGOg&hl=en&ei=LxYfStb2IsXMlQeZuqXFBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=25#PPA113,M1 After Paul left Corinth, by Bruce W. Winter]</ref>

[[Romans 1]] of the New Testament clearly refers to lesbianism, as ''even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature'', as a result of rejecting the creational revelation given them.

''When a man marries in the manner of a woman, a woman about to renounce men {(quum vir nubit in feminam viris porrecturam), what does he wish, when sex has lost all its significance; when the crime is one which it is not profitable to know; when Venus is changed to another form; when love is sought and not found? We order the statutes to arise, the laws to be armed with an avenging sword, that those infamous persons who are now, or who hereafter may be, guilty may be subjected to exquisite punishment.''

During the Roman Imperial period the Lex Julia de adulteris (originally of c. 17 B.C.) was expanded by legal commentators to include first offenses against boys, and possibly all male homosexual acts. Under Justinian, the Eastern Roman Emperor from 527 A.D. to his death, historical accounts in Procopius and Malalas indicate that there was punishment of some homosexuals. In addition, under Justinian's legislative activity there was the strict Institutes of the Corpus Juris Civilis (effective Dec 30, 533), which is understood by some to sum up the legal opinons:<ref>Paul Halsall, Justinian I: Novel 77 [538] and Novel 141 [544 CEAD]</ref>

NOVEL 77 [358 CEAD] (extract)

…since ...since certain men, seized by diabolical incitement practice among themselves the most disgraceful lusts, and act contrary to nature: we enjoin them to take to heart the fear of God and the judgment to come, and to abstain from suchlike diabolical and unlawful lusts, so that they may not be visited by the just wrath of God on account of these impious acts, with the result that cities perish with all their inhabitants. For we are taught by the Holy Scriptures that because of like impious conduct cities have indeed perish, together with all the men in them.<ref>[trans. in Derrick Sherwin Bailey, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition, (London: Longmans, Green, 1955), 73-74]</ref>

NOVEL 141 [344 CEAD]

An notable interesting aspect in regards to the history of homosexuality is that it has been rare in a number of cultures or been absent in some cultures. Dr. Neil Whitehead and Briar Whitehead state regarding various cultures: "If [[homosexuality]] were significantly influenced by [[gene]]s, it would appear in every culture, but in twenty-nine of seventy-nine cultures surveyed by Ford and Beach in 1952, homosexuality was rare or absent."<ref>[http://www.mygenes.co.nz/download.htm My Genes Made Me Do it - a scientific look at sexual orientation by Dr Neil Whitehead and Briar Whitehead - Chapter 6]</ref>

The history of homosexuality in modern times is one which evidences a growth from that which is shameful to mainstream acceptance in the West. This change may be seen as a product of the [[sexual revolution]] beginning in the 1960's1960s, which saw widespread rebellion toward moral authority, and against prohibitions against illicit sex in particular. Gay and lesbian Homosexual rights groups had existed before and grown during that time, but the rebellion which marked that era was distinctly manifested by homosexuals on June 28, 1969 in the [[Stonewall Riots]] which occurred in Greenwich Village, injuring police and bystanders. This is seen as marking the beginning of the modern organizing of gay and lesbian groups, and the promotion of what [[conservatives]] term the [[homosexual agenda]]. Gay Democratic clubs began in every major city, and one fourth of all college campuses had gay and lesbian groups.<ref>(Shilts, 1993, ch.28</ref>. The [[American Psychiatric Association]] was pressured to removed homosexuality from its official listing of mental disorders, and to treat it as an optional lifestyle. It is contended by some that such changes were due to pressure from the homosexual lobby, which Nicholas Cummings, former president of the APA, states, "is very strong in the APA."<ref>http://www.narth.com/docs/study.html</ref><ref>[http://www.narth.com/docs/insiders.html Psychology Losing Scientific Credibility, Say APA Insiders]</ref>

Since Stonewall, the visibility of gays and lesbians has become an increasing aspect of American life, despite the fact that the [[homosexual lifestyle]] was the primary cause of the spread of [[AIDS]], which has resulted in the death of over a half million Americans, and many more world wideworldwide.<ref>[httphttps://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5521a1.htm Twenty-Five Years of HIV/AIDS --- United States, 1981--2006]</ref><ref>[http://www.avert.org/aroundworld.htm AIDS around the world]</ref> In addition to the decreased moral influence by Christians or others, and the increase in erotic sensuality overall, many credit effective homosexual public relations strategy for the increasing acceptance of homosexuality.<ref>[httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=cbfVg_1qhe0C&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&dq=David+W.+Virtue+scots+college&source=bl&ots=aDW7a615Gn&sig=Y1cLsx5sCQTgUUDJ88b5AKPRkNg&hl=en&ei=8skISpP1AcGktgfi2PzsCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#PPR14,M1 Homosexuality, by F. Earle Fox, David W. Virtue]</ref>Instrumental in this strategy were Harvard trained marketing experts and social scientists Marshall Kirk (1957 - 2005) and Hunter Madsen, who advocated avoiding portraying gays as aggressive challengers, but as victims, while making those who opposed them as evil persecutors.<ref>http://www.leaderu.com/socialsciences/sellinghomosexuality.html http://www.article8.org/docs/gay_strategies/after_the_ball.htm </ref><ref>After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90’s, p. 152-153 (1989, Doubleday/Bantam)</ref> The widespread use of the term [[homophobia]] against any who oppose homosexuality has been effective in the latter effort.

Various estimates are given for the percentage of homosexuals (though who sexually desire their same genders over the opposite). The early figure of 10% as based upon a report by Alfred E. Kinsey, though often quoted, is not generally considered accurate by profession researchers, due to serious flaws (and even criminal practices) in his studies.<ref>such as 25 percent of his information coming from present or former prison inmates, many of whom were sex offenders, while a additional 5 percent were male prostitutes: Kinsey, Sex and Fraud: The Indoctrination of a People, Judith A. Reisman, Ph.D. and Edward W. Eichel</ref> A more recent national study found that 1.51% of total U.S. population identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual.<ref>National study published in Laumann, et al., The Social Organization of Sex: Sexual Practices in the United States(1994), cited in Amicus Curiae in support of petitioners. Lawrence and Garner v. State of Texas, No. 02-102 (U.S. March 26, 2003), pg. 16.</ref> Various sources compiled by Thomas E.Schmidt resulted in a figure of 1.8% of the U.S. population being gay or lesbian.<ref>Straight & Narrow: Compassion & Clarity in the Homosexuality Debate, pg. 102-103. [(Original sources: P. Painton, "The Shrinking Ten Percent," Time, April 26, 1993, pp. 27-29; P. Rogers, "How Many Gays Are There?" Newsweek, February 15, 1993, pg. 46)</ref> With the promotion of homosexuality in schools and society, these figures are expected to rise.<ref>http://www.massresistance.org</ref>