History of same-sex unions

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For more details on this topic, see History of human sexuality.

For more details on this topic, see Timeline of same-sex marriage.

Although state-recognized same-sex marriage is a relatively new phenomenon in Western society, there is a long history of same-sex unions around the world. Various types of same-sex unions have existed, ranging from informal, unsanctioned relationships to highly ritualized unions. The first country to allow same sex marriage was the Netherlands.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Asia

See also: Homosexuality in China and Homosexuality in Japan

Same-gender romantic love or sexual desire has been recorded since ancient times in the entirety of the continent of Asia, right from the Middle East to South Asia to East Asia. Such desire often took the form of same-sex unions, usually between men, and often included some difference in age. There is far less information available on relationships among women in ancient times.

In China, in the southern province of Fujian where male love was especially cultivated, men would marry youths in elaborate ceremonies.^[1] The marriages would last a number of years, at the end of which the elder partner would help the younger find a (female) wife and settle down to raise a family. Generally, this practice - though unusual even in China - was reflective of the value Chinese culture placed on the reciprocal relationship between benevolent elders teaching and guiding the obedient younger members of society.

In Japan , Shudo (衆道 shudō), the Japanese tradition of age-structured homosexuality was prevalent in samurai society from the medieval period until the end of the 19th century. Shudo, in its pedagogic, martial, and aristocratic aspects, is closely analogous to the ancient Greek tradition of pederasty (paiderastia).

[edit] Classical Europe

See also: Homosexuality in ancient Rome

See also: Homosexuality in ancient Greece

See also: Historical pederastic couples

Some early Western societies integrated, and even celebrated, same-sex relationships, though it should be noted these relationships were generally substantially different from and in some cases co-existed with traditional marriage. The practice of same-sex love in antiquity often took the form of formal pairings of men with youths, which had many of the attributes of marriage but were limited in duration. (It is important to note, however, that marriages in Ancient Greece between men and women were also age structured, with men in their 30's commonly taking wives in their early teens.) There were also marriage between men, at least among the Romans, as this practice was outlawed in 342 AD by the Christian emperors Constantius and Constans. This law specifically outlaws marriages between men and reads as follows:

When a man marries and is about to offer himself to men in womanly fashion [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. (Theodosian Code 9.8.3)

In spite of this, gay unions are believed to have continued until the late Middle Ages.^[2][3][4]

In Hellenic Greece, the pederastic relationships between Greek men (erastes) and youths (eromenos) who had come of age were, it has been argued, analogous to marriage in several aspects. The age of the youth was similar to the age at which women married (the mid-teens, though in some city states, as young as age seven), and the relationship could only be undertaken with the consent of the father. This consent, just as in the case of a daughter's marriage, was contingent on the suitor's social standing. The relationship, just like a marriage, consisted of very specific social and religious responsibilities and also had a sexual component. That there were debates on which form of love was better is clear from numerous references in works of such writers as Plato (who favored homosexual relationships e.g. Phaedrus and the Symposium) and Lucian. An interesting conservative between two men, one of whom argues that love between men is superior while the other argues the case for women, is found in an ancient Greek novel entitled Leucippe and Clitophon.

At the same time, many of these relationships might be more clearly understood as mentoring relationships between adult men and young boys rather than an analog of marriage. This is particularly true in the case of Sparta, where the relationship was intended to further a young boy's military training. While the relationship was generally life long and of profound emotional significance to the participants, it was not considered marriage by contemporary culture and the relationship continued even after participants entered into traditional marriage to women as was expected in the culture when men reached age 30.

Nevertheless, homosexual relationships between men of the same age were not unheard of in Ancient Greece. The most famous example is that of Achilles and Patroclus. In contrast to the Greeks, evidence for homosexual relationships between men of the same age exists for the Romans. These sources are diverse and include such things as the Roman novel Satyricon, graffiti and paintings found at Pompeii as well as inscriptions left on tombs and papyri found in Egypt.

The fact that marriage occurred between two men among the Romans is proved by a law in the Theodosian Code from the Christian emperors Constantius and Constans which was passed on December 16, 342. ^[5] Martial attests to same-sex marriages between men during the early Roman Empire.^[6] The first recorded marriage between two men occurred during the reign of the Emperor Nero, who is reported to have married two other men on different occasions.^[7] However, both of them were eunuchs and much can be read into his mental state by the fact that he made them up to look like Poppaea, his deceased wife, who he was presumed to have killed by kicking her in the stomach until she miscarried bloodily. Elagabalus is also reported to have married a man in a public ceremony held at Rome.^[8] Emperors who were universally praised and lauded by the Romans, such as Hadrian and Trajan openly had male lovers, although it is not recorded whether or not they ever married their lovers. Hadrian's lover, Antinuous, received deification upon his death and numerous statues exist of him today, more than any other non-imperial person.^[9]

Among the Romans, bisexuality seems to have been perceived as the ideal. Edward Gibbon mentions, of the first fifteen emperors, "Claudius was the only one whose taste in love was entirely correct"—the implication being that he was the only one not to take men or boys as lovers. Gibbon based this on Suetonius' factual statement that "He had a great passion for women, but had no interest in men."^[10] Suetonius and the other ancient authors actually used this against Claudius. They accused him of being dominated by these same women and wives, of being uxorious, and of being a womanizer.

[edit] Proscription under Christianity

Increasingly influential Christianity promoted marriage for procreative purposes and to align society with Judeo-Christian perspectives on heterosexual relationships. The first law against homosexual marriage was promulgated by the Christian emperors Constantius and Constans.^[11] Nevertheless, the Christian emperors continued to collect taxes on male prostitutes until the reign of Anastasius (491-518). In the year 390, the Christian emperors Valentinian II, Theodoisus and Arcadius declared homosexual sex to be illegal and those who were guilty of it were condemned to be burned alive in front of the public. ^[12] The Christian emperor Justinian (527-565) made homosexuals a scape goat for problems such as "famines, earthquakes, and pestilences." ^[13] The teachings of the Talmud and Torah, and the Bible, specifically prohibited the practices as contrary to nature and the will of the Creator, and a moral shortcoming.

Historian John Boswell claimed the 4th century Christian martyrs Saint Sergius and Saint Bacchus were united in the ritual of adelphopoiesis, which he calls an early form of religious same-sex marriage

After the Middle Ages in Europe, same-sex relationships were increasingly frowned upon and banned in many countries by the Church or the state. However, Historian John Boswell argued that Adelphopoiesis, or brother-making, represented an early form of religious same-sex marriage in the Orthodox church, and Alan Bray saw the rite of Ordo ad fratres faciendum ("Order for the making of brothers") as serving the same purpose in the medieval Roman Catholic Church. In the Balkans, same-sex marriage survived until modern days, in the form of the Albanian rite of vellameria, "brother bond."^[14]

In late medieval France, the practice of entering a legal contract of affrèrement provided a vehicle for civil unions between unrelated adults who pledged to live together sharing ‘un pain, un vin, et une bourse’ – one bread, one wine, and one purse.^[15]

[edit] Modern Europe

In the 20th and 21st centuries various types of legal same-sex unions have come to be accepted in the majority of European countries as they have modernized and become secularized. Opposition to gay marriage or unions comes from Christian groups, almost exclusively, especially from the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Gay Marriage is currently legal in Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Norway. Religious countries such as Ireland, Italy, Greece, Romania and Poland (and other Eastern European countries) continue to refuse to allow even same-sex unions.

[edit] North America

Main article: Same-sex marriage in the United States

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Same-sex marriage has been documented in many societies that were not subject to Christian influence. In North America, among the Native Americans societies, it has taken the form of Two-Spirit-type relationships, in which some male members of the tribe, from an early age, heed a calling to take on female gender with all its responsibilities. They are prized as wives by the other men in the tribe, who enter into formal marriages with these Two-Spirit men. They are also respected as being especially powerful shamans.

In the United States during the 19th century, there was recognition of the relationship of two women making a long-term commitment to each other and cohabitating, referred to at the time as a Boston marriage; however, the general public at the time likely assumed that sexual activities were not part of the relationship.

Rev. Troy Perry performed the first public gay wedding in the United States in 1969, but it was not legally recognized, and in 1970, Metropolitan Community Church filed the first-ever lawsuit seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriages. The lawsuit was not successful. In March 2005, Two Unitarian Universalist ministers Kay Greenleaf and Dawn Sangrey were charged with multiple counts of solemnizing a marriage without a license in the State of New York. The charges were the first brought against clergy for performing same-sex unions in North America, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based gay rights group.

The earliest use of the phrase "commitment ceremony" as an alternative term for "gay wedding" appears to be by Bill Woods who, in 1990, tried to organize a mass "commitment ceremony" for Hawaii's first gay pride parade. Similarly, Reverend Jimmy Creech of the First United Methodist Church performed his first "commitment ceremony" of a same-sex couple in 1990 in North Carolina. In January, 1987, Morningside Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends became the first Quaker Meeting to take a same-sex marriage under its care with the marriage of John Bohne and William McCann on May 30, 1987. Although several other Meetings held “Ceremonies of Commitment, Morningside was the first to refer to the relationship as a marriage and afford it equal status.

[edit] Africa

In Africa, among the Azande of the Congo, men would marry youths for whom they had to pay a bride-price to the father. These marriages likewise were understood to be of a temporary nature. In Ancient Egypt, Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum are considered by many to be the first male couple in history. They shared the title of Overseer of the Manicurists in the Palace of King Niussere during the Fifth dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs, and are listed as "royal confidantes" in their joint tomb.^[16]

[edit] See also

• Adelphopoiesis

[edit] References