Gay Marriage in History - lesbian and gay love's path to legal recognition

Gay marriage has become a hot topic as gays, lesbians, bisexuals - or queers or homosexuals if you prefer - have
started to push to have their relationships given marital status. Gay marriage has a long history. In the 1500s the
Catholic Church married some gay male couples. Evidence of lesbian marriages are rarer. Lesbian women were often
financially reliant on a relationship with a man. As a result, history generally records fewer lesbians than gay men. The
history of gay marriage also points to the prevalence of bisexuality. Many people got married and had children, and
had gay or lesbian lovers on the side. Some people might have been 100% gay and getting married because they had
to. But for a long time it was considered most people were bisexual. It was assumed that gay or lesbian love was
appealing to everyone

Innate Nature

How we fall in love

Physical traits

Marrying for Love & Emergence

of Homosexuals

Invention of Opposite Sex & Era of

Oppression

1870-1970s The Dark Years

1970s & Beginning of Liberation

-New

- New!

Un-spot-able | Coming Out

Queens |

Butch from

Birth |

Unscripted

Relationships

Sex & Relationships

3 Layers of Sex |

Lesbians

Sharedness or

Gender?

Weaving Individual Identities

Test 3: Biological S

tudies of

Homosexuality

Pesky Persistence of Non-

Reproductive

Evolutionary Advantage of

Diversity in

Bonding Types

ior 1

For most of western history 'sodomy' had referred to pleasures of the

flesh.

(*)

'Sodomites' were people (usually men) who indulged in gambling, wine,

women and

boys. The

word

sodomy

covered

the whole range of erotic

practices that would not

produce a

baby

in wedlock. It was

a vice that any

person might succumb to.

In the late 1700s and early 1800s this changed

radically. For the

first time it

came to be

believed

that there were some people who

were only

attracted to

people

of the same

sex. T

understand

why we need to understand the

change

marriage.

Industrialization & the Change of Marriage

During medieval times people

lived in l

arge extended family groupings

They were

reliant on the

families

for economic

survival. Marriages were a

political/economic

contract for

strengthening

ties

between families

and securing livelihoods.

As capitalism unfolded, people moved away

from the family

cottage

industry

and

began

sell their labour for wages.

People

stopped

being reliant on

extended

family and

moved

to towns and

cities

In the

following

2-300 years, family

size reduced to the

nuclear

family.

People increasingly chose their

partners

for

emotional security and

nourishment.

It has

now

become the

norm

for marriage

be based on romantic love.

(^)

This process creat

ed both the opportunity and the necessity

for people to

choose

partners for love.

Economic independence gave people greater

freedom to find love

The

loss of communal ties also

made

finding love

important.

eople

increasingly

had to

select

one

person

to be

their

partner in

life and

meet

all

their

emotional needs.

The way people

ormed

emotional bonds

became

central to forming families.

Emergence of 'Homosexuals'

As the trend of marrying for love gained

momentum, the first signs of

modern gay

communities

appeared

Sub-cultures developed in large

cities.

In the

1800s, for the

first

time

in modern western

history, it

came to

be believed there w

ere

some

people who

always

sought out

partners

the same

sex.

Over the

course of the

century

this

group

of people

began

to be

labelled

‘homosexuals’.

(*)

e diversity in how people form emotional

bonds is likely to have always

existed. In the

times of

arranged marriages it was an aspect

of human

diversity that was not important.

It was only

when

the way people

fell in love

became central to how people

form

families that the

ommunity

began to take notice.

Society

started

need

to be

able to predict

who

people were

attracted to

The culture

began to

develop

new categories of

people.

Leading anthropologists have found

hat

ound the world

, the only

cultures that h

ave a

concept of

homosexuality are those where marriage

is based on romantic love.

(#)

Gay marriage has become a hot topic
as gays, lesbians, bisexuals - or
queers or homosexuals if you prefer -
have started to push to have their
relationships given marital status. Gay
marriage has a long history. In the
1500s the Catholic Church married
some gay male couples. Evidence of
lesbian marriages are rarer. Lesbian
women were often financially reliant on
a relationship with a man. As a result,
history generally records fewer
lesbians than gay men. The history of
gay marriage also points to the
prevalence of bisexuality. Many people
got married and had children, and had
gay or lesbian lovers on the side.
Some people might have been 100%
gay and getting married because they
had to. But for a long time it was
considered most people were bisexual.
It was assumed that gay or lesbian
love was appealing to everyone - but it
was stigmatized to discourage people
from engaging in these pleasures of
the flesh. It is only quite recently it has
been recognised that gay, lesbian and
bisexual relationships are not just
about the sex, but also about the love.