At all times, in all countries, the attitude towards homosexuals was different. Somewhere they were banned, punished and even killed, but somewhere, on the contrary, they were encouraged. From ancient Sumerian brothels, through the fires of the Inquisition to Victorian psychiatric hospitals - we tell where and how they punished, killed and tried to treat homosexuals.
Ancient Egypt
Despite the rather free by modern standards of manners and the fact that most of the ancient Egyptians went without clothes at all, homosexuality was not encouraged in those days. The Egyptians Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum are called "the first same-sex couple". They lived during the reign of Pharaoh Nyuserra from the fifth dynasty (c. 2458 - 2422 BC) and were quite high-ranking nobles. Both bore the title of caretakers of the royal manicure, were the confidants of the pharaoh and the prophets of Ra in the Sun Temple of Niuserra. Despite their same-sex relationships, both Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum were married and had children. In the 125th chapter of the Book of the Dead, sodomy was considered the 27th of 42 sins, in the failure of which the ancient Egyptian had to be justified before the judgment of the gods.
Mesopotamia
In general, the ancient city of Uruk was characterized by a wide spread of all prostitution, including homosexual. Although, according to the Middle Assyrian laws of the II millennium BC. e. homosexuality was to be severely punished. The laws even had a special paragraph on this subject, which read: "If a person knows an equal to himself, and he was swornly accused and convicted, he must know him and emasculate him."
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Israel and Judea
Everything is quite strict here. The book of Leviticus reads: “And Yahweh said to Moses: Say to the children of Israel: … And do not lie with a man as they lie with a woman: this is an abomination. … Do not defile yourself with all this, for all this defiled the nations that I drive away from you. " "And a man who lies with a man, as they lie with a woman - they both have done an abomination, let them be put to death, their blood on them."
India
In ancient India, the attitude towards homosexuality and the punishment for it very much depended on the region and the specific person convicted of this act, or rather on his caste. A fine is imposed on a girl who corrupts another girl; if a woman corrupts a girl, then the brahmana's head is shaved off, the kshatriya's two fingers are cut off, and the rest are publicly carried on a donkey. At the same time, Vatsyayana Mallanagi's Kamasutra (3rd century) contains a detailed description of auparishtaka (oral sex with a eunuch). According to the scholar, “For some men, auparishtaka is performed by young servants with glittering ornaments in their ears. Some townspeople do the same, wanting to please each other with increasing trust by mutual agreement."
Ancient China
Who would have thought, but ancient China was one of the most loyal countries in relation to homosexuals. Apparently, until a certain time, same-sex relationships were not punished in any way. On the contrary, many Chinese emperors of the Western Han Dynasty had in their harems not only countless women, but also young people. And the province of Fujian became famous for the folk ritualization of same-sex marriage between men, embodied in the cult of Hu Tianbao.
Europe
About Europe, in general, it is understandable and so. Numerous testimonies of ancient historians clearly indicate that the Germans, Celts, Etruscans and other European peoples were completely normal about homosexuality, not considering it something special or wrong. Diodorus Siculus, in particular, wrote about the Celts as follows: "Having women of beautiful appearance, the Gauls pay little attention to them, being beyond measure possessed by an insane passion for male embraces." At the same time, the ancient Greek physician Soranus of Ephesus, who worked in Rome in the II century AD. e. in his writings he spoke about homosexuality as a mental pathology.
Middle Ages
Antiquity was replaced by the "Dark Ages". The Church and the Holy Inquisition tried by any means to suppress not only same-sex intercourse, but in general any manifestations of sexuality. That is why, literally in crowds, they burned at the stake any beautiful women who, in their opinion, were certainly witches and conjured their own beauty. Sodomites also went to the fires for witches. However, there is a lot of evidence that the inquisitors themselves were not at all averse to having fun not only with prostitutes, but also with young youths. At that time, as you understand, there could be no question of any attempts to "cure" homosexuality. The inquisitor said to the fire - it means to the fire. But, only after good and prolonged torture, of course.
Medieval Japan
And here for the homosexuals of the "dark ages" there was a real paradise. As in ancient Greece, sexual relations between a man and a boy were not only not prohibited, but were encouraged in every possible way, being regarded as a form of mentoring. It was believed that in this way an experienced man "teaches" the boy to be strong. There are a huge number of texts from the Shudo era, which tell about how strong and courageous boys were in those days and how valiantly they fought the enemy. Yes, homosexuality in medieval Japan was especially common among samurai warriors.
Renaissance
The Renaissance in Europe brought with it not only the freedom of creativity, but even a small, but still, freedom of morals. Yes, homosexuality was still a grave and serious charge, yes, it could still be sentenced to severe punishment. But every year sodomites began to be burned less and less and in general to be executed. On the other hand, the widespread prevalence of same-sex love, especially among the clergy, is a popular topic of satirical literature of the Renaissance. So, for example, in the "Decameron" by Boccaccio (mid-14th century) the following description of the papal court in Rome is given: of whom there is neither shame nor conscience, that indecent girls enjoy considerable influence here,as well as the boys, and that if anyone wishes to ask for great mercy, then one cannot do without their mediation."
19th century
With the beginning of the 19th century and the development of all areas of medicine, an increasing number of scientists and doctors are turning their attention to homosexual relationships as subjects of careful research and analysis. Most of them concluded that homosexuality is a degenerative disease and can be treated like many other mental disorders. Very popular then were the marriages of "cured" (or as they were also called "inverted") homosexuals, which gave doctors a reason to say with confidence that this "disorder" was treatable. However, in comparison with the Renaissance, this was already a rather big step forward, because homosexuals were less and less often sent to prisons and more and more often sent to hospitals for the mentally ill.
XX century
In 1906, a book by the British physician Henry Ellis "Sexual Inversion" was published in Germany, in which he presented a scientific review of all the facts known at that time regarding homosexual relations among animals, among "primitive" (uncivilized) peoples, in antiquity and in modern Ellis era. Ellis' idea, very bold and radical for that time, was that he did not consider homosexuality to be some kind of mental disorder, and did not see the need for its treatment. After publication in England, his book was prosecuted as "lustful, harmful, vicious, filthy, scandalous and obscene."
The father of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud, did not consider homosexuality to be a disease. He was of the opinion that all people are inherently bisexual, and heterosexuality and homosexuality are options for early childhood development. Freud also doubted the prospects for the treatment of homosexuality and said that "an attempt to transform … a homosexual into a heterosexual is likely to be unsuccessful."
Homosexuality was officially considered a mental disorder until 1990, when it was excluded from 10 revisions of the WHO International Classification of Diseases. However, this does not prevent many countries in the modern world from prohibiting same-sex relationships, including at the legislative level. To this day, there are many places in the world where homosexuality is followed by a prison sentence at best, and the death penalty at worst.
