LGBT history
LGBT history dates back to the first recorded instances of same-sex love and sexuality of ancient civilizations, involving the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) peoples and cultures around the world. What survives after many centuries of persecution—resulting in shame, suppression, and secrecy—has only in more recent decades been pursued and interwoven into more mainstream historical narratives.
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of LGBT history.In 1994, the annual observance of LGBT History Month began in the United States, and it has since been picked up in other countries. This observance involves highlighting the history of the people, LGBT rights and related civil rights movements. It is observed during October in the United States, to include National Coming Out Day on October 11.[1] In the United Kingdom it has been observed during February since 2005 to coincide with the abolition of Section 28 in 2003, which had prohibited local authorities from "promoting" homosexuality.[2][3] A celebrated achievement in LGBT history occurred when Queen Beatrix signed a law making Netherlands the first country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2001.[4]
Southeast Asia and the Pacific
In Thailand, homosexuality has been documented as early as the Ayutthaya period (1351 to 1767) . Temple murals have been found which depict same-sex relations between men and between women.[23] Concubines from the royal Thai family were known in the ‘Samutthakhot Kham Chan’ (สมุทรโฆษคำฉันท์), Thai literature from Ayuttaya times, to have lesbian relationships.[24] Records of homosexuality are present since at least the 14th century in Vietnam.[25] In the Philippines, same-sex marriage was documented as normalized as early as the 1500s through the Boxer Codex, while various texts have elaborated on the powerful roles gender non-conforming peoples had prior to Spanish colonization.[26] Many of these gender non-conforming people became shamans known as babaylan, whose social status were on par with the ruling nobility.[27][28] In Indonesia, the Serat Centhini records the prevalence of bisexuality and homosexuality in Javanese culture.[29] Homosexuality has also been recorded as part of numerous indigenous cultures throughout Indonesia, where each culture has specific terminologies for gender non-conforming peoples, many of whom had high roles in society.[30]
Under British colonial rule, the British imposed Section 377 or its equivalent over territories it colonized in Asia, including Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei. The law has left an anti-LGBT legacy in the countries that Britain colonized.[31][32] In Cambodia, homosexuality and same-sex marriages are openly supported by the monarchy, which has called on its government to legalize marriage equality.[33] In East Timor, Asia's youngest independent country since 2002, prime ministers and presidents have openly supported the LGBT community since 2017 when the nation celebrated its first pride march with religious and political leaders backing the movement.[34]
In some societies of Melanesia, especially in Papua New Guinea, same-sex relationships were, until the middle of the last century, an integral part of the culture.[35] Third gender concepts are prevalent in Polynesia, such as Samoa, where traditional same-sex marriage have been documented and trans people are widely accepted prior to colonization.[36][37] In Australia, non-binary concepts have been recorded in the culture of the indigenous Aboriginal peoples since pre-colonial times,[38] while homosexual terminologies are indigenous to Tiwi Islanders.[39] In New Zealand, Maori culture has records of homosexuality through their indigenous epics, where queer people are referred to as takatāpui.[40] In Hawaii, queer people, referred to as māhū, are widely accepted since pre-colonial times. Intimate same-sex relationships, referred as moe aikāne, are supported by indigenous rulers or chieftains without any form of stigma.[41] British colonialism and Christian churches have left an anti-LGBT legacy in parts of the Pacific due to the aggressive discriminatory impositions of Western conservatism on the region.[42]
Middle East and North Africa
Abbasid Caliphate
In the age of the Abbasid Caliphate, some references and anecdotes to same-sex love affairs and social views on gender and sexuality can be found in literary texts such as recorded poems.
In Jawāmiʿ al-ladhdha, a 10th century erotic compendium, individual proponents discuss their sexual preferences in contributed poems. Female poets, describe tribadism as a form of sexual gratification without the concomitant loss of reputation or risk of pregnancy.[54] Other poets such as Abu'l-'Anbas Saymari, who is said to have written a book about lesbians and passive sodomites that has not survived to this day, described same-sex intercourse between two women as compatible due to the similarity of both love bodies and the equality of their relationship to other women.[54]
The categorisation of different sex acts in Arabic-Islamic culture, was named according to the act rather than a particular orientation. A possible distinction according to El-Rouayheb is that of the active and passive part during the sexual intercourse.[55] Thus, the act of two women haven intercourse was known as saḥḥāqāt, derived from saḥq for rubbing - in theory regardless of the gender identity of the partner.[56][54]
An example of described homosexuality between men are the two poets Abū Nuwās and al-Buturī known for their affection for slave boys (ghulām) or socially inferior boys. In one story, al-Buturī's is selling Nasīm, a slave boy, to the son of a vizier, only to regret it later and buy him back at great financial sacrifice.[57]
Abū Nuwās explicitly describes his affection for young male lovers in his poems, often referring to socially subordinate boys such as Christian tavern boys, student from mosques, or apprentices in the bureaucracy.[58]
Historical study of homosexuality
19th century and early 20th century
When Heinrich Hössli and K. H. Ulrichs began their pioneering homosexual scholarship in the late 19th century, they found little in the way of comprehensive historical data, except for material from ancient Greece and Islam.[219] Some other information was added by the English scholars Richard Burton and Havelock Ellis. In Germany, Albert Moll published a volume containing lists of famous homosexuals. By the end of the century, however, when the Berlin Scientific-Humanitarian Committee was formed it was realised that a comprehensive bibliographical search must be undertaken. The results of this inquiry were incorporated into the volumes of the Jahrbuch fur sexualle Zwischenstufen and Magnus Hirschfeld's Die Homosexualität des Mannes und des Weibes (1914). The Great Depression and the rise of Nazism put a stop to most serious homosexual research.
1950s and 1960s
As part of the growth of the contemporary gay movement in Southern California, a number of historical articles made their way into such movement periodicals as The Ladder, Mattachine Review, and One Quarterly. In France, Arcadie under the editorship of André Baudry published a considerable amount of historical material. Almost without exception, university scholars were afraid to touch the subject. As a result, much of the work was done by autodidacts toiling under less than ideal conditions. Since most of this scholarship was done under movement auspices, it tended to reflect relevant concerns; compiling a brief of injustices and biographical sketches of exemplary gay men and women of the past for example.
The atmosphere of the 1960s changed things. The sexual revolution made human sexuality an appropriate object of research. A new emphasis on social and intellectual history appeared, stemming in large measure from the group around the French periodical Annales. Although several useful syntheses of the world history of homosexuality have appeared, much material, especially from Islam, China and other non-Western cultures has not yet been properly studied and published, so that undoubtedly these will be superseded.[220]
School curricula
In 2011, California became the first U.S. state to pass a law requiring LGBT history to be taught in public schools.[221] However, the first textbook complying with the law was only published in 2017 due to opposition from conservative groups and communities. Colorado and New Jersey passed similar laws in 2019, and an LGBT history law in Illinois took effect in July 2020. Six southern states including Alabama, South Carolina, and Texas have laws banning LGBT history from being taught in schools.[222][221]