Essays

Homosexual Oppression Before The 21st Century

Throughout history, there have been many instances where homosexuals have been oppressed seemingly without any reason besides religion. While this oppression was mainly done by Christians, there have been other times where countries or even political groups have shown discrimination and inconceivable hatred because of this over the course of many lifetimes. This article will discuss some of the ways homosexuals have been discriminated against over the course of history, who mistreated them, and legal actions that have been taken in the 20th century since these events have taken place.

It has been proven through historical documents that homosexual acts have existed for thousands of years in humans, but only recently has it become taboo for someone to be gay. One of the best examples of homosexual relationships existing before the 20th century is ancient Greece. Here, it was fairly normal for elder men and teenage boys to be in relationships, and it was considered a very honorable pairing.The Roman Catholic Church also played a role in the acceptance of homosexuals until the 12th century by celebrating when two men fell in love. Even certain Native American tribes accepted transvestites as bodies with two souls, and these people were held to the highest honor. In these historical times, however, it was the acts of homosexuality and not the group of people who were accepted. This may have been what caused an opposition to the gay community over time.

During the renaissance era there were many instances of homosexuality being seen as sinful, and people even being condemned to death because of this. One way that people were punished for homosexuality during these times was by burning them alive if they were adults or, if they were juveniles, simply making them pass through the fire so they could see what would happen if they did not change in the future. Other times, convicted homosexuals would be tortured until they revealed other offenders of these acts. Homosexual women during this period were rarely executed as a punishment mainly because it was seen as less severe of a case for two women to be together than two men. Most of the controversy over gay women during this time was when a woman would wear men's clothes and take over the man's role in the home. This was seen as against the natural order.

During the first world war, the American military began forcing men to have a psychological screening before being able to join any branch. This screening included a section on homosexuality in men that was highly discriminatory, and if one was "proven" to be gay, they were automatically not accepted into the military. This portion of the screening was highly stereotypical because there was no real way to tell if a man was gay. If a man seemed to dress, speak or act feminine in any way, he was "gay" according to the evaluation. Women who wanted to serve, however, did not have to go through this screening and were not judged on their physical characteristics like the men were, even though it is believed that many women in service were in fact gay.

Though America spoke about the Nazis quite often during the second world war, they kept a crucial part of the story out of the news: The Nazi treatment of Homosexuals. Starting in 1938, gay men and women were taken to concentration camps and forced to wear pink triangles. Any "inappropriate activities" between two people of the same sex, such as kissing or hand holding, was enough to get sent to a concentration camp. In the concentration camps, many men were subject to harassment, imprisonment and even torture. Some homosexual men were experimented on because the Nazis said they had a "cure for homosexuality" but in reality their experiments yielded no scientific information and caused illness and death among the test subjects. Many first-hand accounts say that this group was also one of the most abused. After the war, many homosexuals were kept imprisoned by the United States after being released from the concentration camps. This lasted until 1960 when the anti-homosexual law from the Nazi-era was finally abolished.

Before the 1940's many European countries had laws against homosexuality, but after 1945 many western European countries began having gay rights movements, and slowly these countries abolished the laws. By the end of the 1990's European countries including England, Germany, The Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Finland, Spain, France,Denmark, Sweden and Ireland had all either abolished anti-homosexual laws or added anti-discrimination laws referring to homosexuals.

So, what different societies tried to oppress homosexuals, and what were their methods of oppression? There have been many societies, some dating back to the renaissance and others have taken place fairly recently. Some methods of oppression include stereotyping, public humiliation, execution, torture and many other forms not listed in this article. Some ways that discrimination of gays is being opposed in Europe are shown in the newly-added anti-discrimination laws and the abolishment of anti-homosexuality laws in the 20th century. During the 21st century many countries have already passed new laws on this subject, but this article does not mention them, because there is still a lot to be done to end the discrimination of the gay community within the governments of many countries. Hopefully this can be accomplished sometime in the near future.

Citations:

Books

Norman, E., & Wilson, J. (2001). Homosexuality. In European Renaissance and Reformation, 1350-1600 (Vol. 1, pp. 330-333). Detroit, Michigan: Gale Group.

Homosexuality. (2006). In J. Merriman & J. Winter (Eds.), Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction (Vol. 3, pp. 1348-1352). Detroit, Michigan: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Websites

"Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 24 Sept. 2015. <http://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/special-focus/nazi-persecution-of-homosexuals>.

Wolf, Sherry. "The Roots of Gay Oppression." International Socialist Review. 1 Oct. 2004. Web. <http://www.isreview.org/issues/37/gay_oppression.shtml#top>.