...have told you that this queer has had enough of the stealth bigotry you and a few others have shown on DU. Don't you dare go confusing my post tone with my relationship. At least I have someone who truly loves me in my life Jason.
The only thing I am not happy about is the fact that YOUR country is so arrogant it cannot even recognize people who love one another, because it can't see past its own pitiful nose! It is YOUR country that keeps me from the woman in my life Jason!
As for history showing homosexuality being openly accepted, well here is a list of books. I guarantee you won't go out of your way to read them, but unless you do, then you don't have a leg to stand on, and what you said is nothing more than blatant bigotry!
Required Reading:
-Crucifixion of Hyacinth: Jews, Christians, and Homosexuals from Classical Greece to Late Antiquity by Geoff Puterbaugh
-Homosexuality in the Ancient World by Wayne R. Dynes
-Gay Warriors : A Documentary History from the Ancient World to the Present by B. R. Burg
-Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective by Martti Nissinen
-Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History by Ruth Vanita
-Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece by William Armstrong Percy III
-One Hundred Years of Homosexuality and Other Essays on Greek Love by David M. Halperin
-Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan by Gary P. Leupp
As for web links, here is some to start you off, Jason:
http://www.gayegypt.com/egangodamcre.html (Interesting Egyptian history about how they believe the universe was created)
http://www.gayegypt.com/aneggaygod.html (All about Egyptian GAY GODS! Now, Jason, do you honestly believe that if homosexuality wasn't accepted in society, that society would be deeming them Gods?)
http://www.well.com/user/aquarius/egypt.htm (The third gender in Acient Egypt)
http://www.egyptology.com/niankhkhnum_khnumhotep/ (The tomb of niankhkhnum & khnumhotep.)
<snip>
'He was impressed with its unique scenes of two men in intimate embrace, something he had never seen before in all the Saqqara tombs.
Meanwhile archaeologists working on the restoration of the causeway of Unas discovered that some of the stone blocks that had been used to build the causeway had been appropriated in ancient times from the mastaba that had originally served as the entrance to this newly discovered tomb. The archaeologists reconstructed the mastaba using the inscribed blocks found in the substructure of the causeway.
It was revealed that this unique tomb had been built for two men to cohabit and that both shared identical titles in the palace of King Niuserre of the Fifth Dynasty: "OVERSEER OF THE MANICURISTS IN THE PALACE OF THE KING."'
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/greekeros.html (Paul Halsall:
Homosexual Eros in Early Greece (1986)
<snip>
Homosexual Eros in Early Greece: "Love, and sex, between men is not a rare thing. Anthropologically a majority of societies <1> accept what we now call homosexuality, especially where one partner plays a totally feminine role. What is special about Greek homosexuality is its apparent prevalence, the appreciation of aspects of masculinity in the other partner and the almost total damnatio memoriae suffered by the phenomenon until recent decades."
"Definitions are important in considering the subject of sexuality. I was wary about using the word 'homosexual' in the title; 'eros' is the Greek word for sexual desire and what we would call romantic love. Particularly in the late 7th and 6th centuries BC but to an extent throughout antiquity, romantic love as presented in our sources was something directed primarily at members of ones' own sex. We are justified in using the word 'homosexual' only if we remember that it is an anachronism. Modern homosexuality is a psycho-social phenomenon where a person's desires are directed emotionally and sexually towards members of the same sex. The word itself is a nineteenth century attempt to medicalise what had previously been known as sodomy. Perceptions moved from sinful acts to sick persons. The Greeks were living before either a sin or medical model of homosexuality and while aware of differing inclinations did not consider these important enough to establish a separate social category. Exclusive preference for one sex or the other was not an issue and most men we hear about liked both. In short this paper is not about Greek 'homosexuality' but about romantic love in Greece during the age of the tyrants. The fact that it was largely homosexual is interesting to us but was not particularly so to the Greeks."
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/clem-ped-3-3.html (Clement of Alexandria (c.200 CE): On Effeminate Men and Masculine Women)
<snip>
Remember that Clement is NOT in favor of same sex relationships and marriages, BUT, it is interesting to note, that he talks about the fact that women were marrying women!
He writes: "But life has reached this pitch of licentiousness through the wantonness of wickedness, and lasciviousness is diffused over the cities, having become law. Beside them women stand in the stews, offering their own flesh for hire for lewd pleasure, and boys, taught to deny their sex, act the part of women.
Luxury has deranged all things; it has disgraced man. A luxurious niceness seeks everything, attempts everything, forces everything, coerces nature. Men play the part of women, and women that of men, contrary to nature; women are at once wives and husbands: no passage is closed against libidinousness; and their promiscuous lechery is a public institution, and luxury is domesticated.
<[[Note: Bernadette Brooten, in Love Between Women, p. 322 translates the above passage as follows: "[Luxury> confounds nature; men passively play the role of women (lit: "suffer the things of women"), and women behave like men in that women, contrary to nature, are given in marriage (gamoumenai) and marry (gamousai) other (women)"]] "
Now, Jason, this is just a sample of what the history of homosexuality is all about. I would post more, but, I decided I have given you enough, now it is up to you to do your own homework. Here is an excellent resource, might take you a while to get through all the links though.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/index.html and
http://www.amuseyourself.com/cgi-bin/tseekdir.cgi?location=Root-GoQueer,046com-History,047Herstory Great homework sites for you.
And BTW, If you are going to judge homosexuals (and don't say you aren't, because if you weren't Jason, then gay marriage wouldn't be such a sore issue with you) then you ought to really brush up on our history before insulting us.
Oh, and don't forget to go google the word "sappho". Once you done there try googling the native American word "Berdache" which means "Two-Spirit" people, meaning homosexuals.
And I would like to leave you with one of my partners favorite sayings: If Michelangelo had been straight, the Sistine Chapel would have been painted with a roller."