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This is an essay I wrote for grade 12 Sociology. We had to write a paper in a specific method of a sociologist. I chose Society and Homosexuality as a topic, and participant observation as my method. I knocked this one out of the park and got 90. But in a dick move by my teacher, my ex boyfriend, just a friend at the time, also got 90. He handed in two half pages, one written mostly by me involving homelessness, the half written by him was on the urban myth of mole people, and the second page was a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket that detailed the night he slept in the train station. I was livid.

 

Society and Homosexuality

Homosexuality is, at best, a touchy topic. It has been, to some degree, in the limelight for the last 100 years. However, that doesn’t mean that it just appeared at the dawn of the twentieth century. In order to examine society and its views and perceptions of homosexuality, you have to first know the basic facts about homosexuality. First we’ll examine a brief history of homosexuality, followed by the homosexual rights movement, and then move on to Different genders perception of either gendered homosexuals. After analyzing those topics, the main problem will be addressed with some ideas to help alleviate pressure on the situation as well as notes from a participant observation study five years in the making.

A Timeline of Homosexuality

It is foolishly believed by some that homosexuality is a recent thing. Well, they are not so much foolish as they are uneducated in the matter. So this section will attempt to educate the reader in a brief timeline of homosexuality. The topics examined will be homosexuality before 10th century BC, between 9th century BC and 1st century AD, 2nd Century AD to 12th century AD, 13th century AD to 19th century AD, and from 20th century AD to today.

The first span of time would be homosexuality represented before 10th century BC. While occurrences of homosexuality in this time, like most topics, are far and few in between, they are still there. There is evidence of homo eroticism in artifacts surviving from the end of the upper Paleolithic era. An engraving found in Sicily dating around 5000 BC also depicts homo eroticism in society. In 25th century BC, in the fifth dynasty of Egypt, a tomb was built for Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, two men who worked as manicurists and hairdressers for King Niuserre. The two men were believed to be a homosexual couple, due to the artwork on their tomb depicting them in a pose reserved for husband and wife. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero’s love for his comrade Enkidu is so strong that one not even need to extrapolate to see a subtext of love between them. In 6th dynasty Egypt, it was believed that King Neferkare and General Sisene were in a homosexual relationship. These incidents, while there are few, are still there, giving, at first, a shaky base to homosexuality. This base is further built upon in later centuries.

Which brings us to our second space of time. Homosexuality, like most topics explored, becomes a bit more prevalent as artifacts and artwork survive. As such, between the 9th century BC and 1st century AD, more evidence of homosexuality emerges. In Sparta, relationships between an older person and a younger one of the same gender were encouraged to educate the younger. On the Island of Lesbos, Sappho wrote world praised poetry about love affairs with other women. That very same island spawned the word Lesbian itself and Sappho has become an icon to lesbians the world over. 500 BC, the Chinese duke Ling of Wei publicly lavishes attention on a young man named Mizi Xia. The words Mizi Xia become synonymous with “a man who loves men” for more than 2000 years afterwards. The Sacred Band of Thebes was a band of 150 gay couples in 4th century BC that survived through several battles entirely intact until their total decimation. Nero, one of the emperors of Greece, had two husbands that were treated with the same rights as wives were, a move that was highly criticized. As you can see, homosexuality certainly didn’t spring up overnight. However, it was worrisome to certain individuals, who deemed it unsafe.

In the next space of time, 1st century AD to 12th century AD, even more evidence of homosexuality emerges, as well as societies views on it. In 4th century AD, Constantine’s sons, Constans and Constantius II passed a law that outlawed pretty much everything having to do with homosexuality. This move was mirrored by Justinian I and Theodora of Byzantine, who banned homosexuality outright, among other things in Justinian’s Code. Granted, no one really liked them that much, so no one really obeyed said law, and it was just shy of being totally forgotten by 11th Century AD.  Circa 222 AD, Heliogabalus, a roman emperor married a slave boy in a formal ceremony and it is commonly believed that this was a contributing factor to his murder. By the 12th century, it was less of a case of finding those who expressed opposition to homosexuality so much as who didn’t. This ties in a lot with the emergence and power of Christianity as its influence grew. 

After the 12th century, people, as previously stated, fueled by reigion began to impose punishments on homosexuality. Left, right and center more and more rules were laid down, with homosexuals in the public eye generally ending dead. One such occurrence was the suspected murder of King Edward II of England in 1327, whose cause of death is still heavily rumoured to be attributed to sodomy with a hot iron brand. Various laws, including Henry VIII’s sodomy law, which outlawed anything that didn’t produce children, regardless of the gender. In 1649, the first conviction involving Lesbians happened in Plymouth, Massachusetts . In 1779 Thomas Jefferson released a draft of the Virginia statute, one of the offenses being sodomy. The punishment was castration. In the 19th century, however, the wheels of change began to grind again, and homosexuality was decriminalized in the Netherlands, Bavaria, Brazil, Portugal, San Marino, Argentina and Japan. Unfortunately, it was also criminalized in Russia and Poland. 34 years after decriminalizing homosexuality, Portugal re-criminalized it. Britain reduced its sentence from death to imprisonment over the course of several years.   

In the last 100 plus years, we’ve come a long way. Individuals like Emma Goldman begin to speak publicly about homosexuality. Vice Versa, the first LGBT publication ever produced in North America is formed by Edith Eyde. In 1954 the Mattachine Society formed proper, followed by the Daughters of Bilitis the following year.  Words like “Gay,” “Transexual,” and “Faggot” are coined.  A plethora of countries begin to decriminalize homosexuality, some even going so far as to instate laws protecting them from hate crimes. In fact, there are far too many occurrences happening in this space of time to record. All that can be said is that with homosexuals feeling safer, more and more are coming out of the closet and are standing up for what they believe in. A lot of gay people are injured around the world, to be sure, and we haven’t come all the way. Homosexuality is still opposed in many places, but its certainly getting better.

So, to recap, Homosexuality was at least apparent before 10000 BC, however, any complete documentation would be impossible to obtain due to lack of relics remaining from that period. As history gets a bit clearer between 100th century BC to 1st Century AD, we see that homosexuality was a common practice in most of Europe. In most places, it was actually encouraged to teach younger members of the community. However, after this time, between 1st Century AD and 12th Century, homosexuality was one of several “practices” that were determined to be detrimental, mostly by religious factions. Between then and 19th Century AD, many laws were instated to ban homosexuality, the harshest being execution. However, in the last one hundred years a remarkable amount of ground has been covered, and society is back on the track to equality.

The Homosexual Rights movement

In the last section, we touched briefly upon the Homosexual rights movement. This section will explain a bit more about the homosexual rights movement, primarily since 1940. In it, we will address a few groups, the Stonewall incident an its effects and the gay pride parade. Homosexuals in the last several hundred years have had a bit of a rough time. A lot of this is attributed to the fact that religion wasn’t so cool with it. Unfortunately, the dominant religion wins in most cases, so homosexuals were forced underground. Starting in the 40’s, Homosexual rights groups began a movement to bring homosexuality back into the good books. This was called the homophile movement, so as to emphasize love over sex.

The homosexual rights movement, arguably, has the most detailed, history in the United States. While in the underground, groups would form to act as a wave against hatred and inequality. The first such group was called the Mattachine Society, named for a french renaissance masque troupe. the Mattachine Society was first formed in Harry Hay in 1950, but after the original group fell through, it came under new management in 1954 and proceeded to rise to its known glory. The Mattachine Society was formed to bring together homosexual men who were otherwise isolated from others and to have such laws like the sodomy laws repealed.  When some of the members of the Mattachine Society segregated, they created ONE, Inc., which put out a prominent gay culture magazine called ONE Magazine. One difference between ONE, Inc and the Mattachine Society was that ONE, Inc., accepted women. Which brings us to our next group, the Daughters of Bilitis, a lesbian group named for a fictional lover of Sappho in the 1894 erotic poetry collection ‘The songs of Bilitis.’ The Daughters of Bilitis went on to publish The Ladder, the first lesbian publication to go nationwide. There were certainly more groups out there, but these were the most prominent in the united states, despite the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis going under in the sixties and early seventies.

Stonewall sounds like the site for a battleground, and it really sort of is. It is also the turning point for the gay rights movement. In New York, back in the sixties, homosexuality just wasn’t allowed. It was against the law, so, in order to actually meet other Homosexuals, you would have to go to one of the underground bars. One of the bars in question was called Stonewall. It was an out of the place bar that had a routine raid by the police in 1969. As the police cleared the bar out, they began to arrest some patrons. For some reason, the crowd outside, consisting purely of homosexuals, rose against this instead of disbanding like the norm. They began to pelt the police officers with jeers and objects, until the officers called for back-up and hid inside the bar. The bar was set aflame, which was quickly extinguished. This uncharacteristically violent riot took the officers by surprise, and the riot continued on to various degrees for the next five days. Because of this occurrence, homosexuals realized that they had to be more active in order to change things. After this, groups like the Mattachine Society gave way for groups like the Gay Activists Alliance.  One riot effectively jump started the gay rights movement proper.

The gay pride parade is one of the most known symbols of homosexuality. The first gay pride parade was on June 28th, 1970, the one year anniversary of the Stonewall riots. It was first formed by Brenda Howard in New York with several similar events happening in other cities around the States. The parade was to remember Stonewall for what it was. The trigger to the events that would take 37 years to unfold, but still going strong. The parade was also set up to encourage other gay people to stand up and be proud. It has acted like a symbol of growing confidence and influence in the years since. The gay pride parade balances the serious intent behind it, as well as the sense of individuality. The gay pride parade is a reminder to those who are ashamed or afraid that there are others out there, and that there is nothing wrong with them. It’s a reminder to everyone that homosexuality isn’t a phase, its life.

The homosexual rights movement has acted much like a wave. IT was small and harmless for quite some time before in an instant, it reared up and swept down on society, taking it by storm. We’re still in the midst of that wave, as incidents still happen that simply shouldn’t. Society isnt as accepting as it A, used to be, B, should be. Groups like the Mattachine Society shouldn’t have to exist to fight for rights that should have been existant all along. Incidents like Stonewall shouldn’t have to happen to instigate change. Unfortunately, not everything goes according to plan, and its all up to society itself to change.

Gender Perception

It is common sense to say that the different genders have different perceptions of homosexuals of either gender. In this section we’ll examine that perception. This section will be split into four sub-sections. Boys, girls, gay guys and lesbians. While most people this day and age, when asked, will say that they are neutral on the topic, despite personal feelings. This puts most research off of a proper number, due to political correctness.

The first subsection to be addressed is males perception of homosexuals. On a general basis, males are split two ways on homosexuality. On one hand, they feel, on a whole, almost threatened by homosexual men. However, often time, they find lesbians, so long as they are attractive, “hot.” Males are also more prone to homophobia and subsequent hate crimes then females are.

The next topic is the female perception of homosexuality. On a whole, females aren’t that bothered by homosexuals as much as males are. Women aren’t threatened by lesbians as males are with homosexual men, and they, on a whole, express interest in homosexual men for whatever reason. In fact, it was women who made the first slash (man on man) fanfiction. Women are generally more emotionally receptive or empathetic to others, probably lending to their overall lack of hate crimes or negative opinion overall towards homosexuals.

Homosexual men receive different treatment from different gender. That’s a common fact and common sense. Males, as stated before, are more likely to commit a hate crime to a homosexual, and its most likely a male that is the target. This is because society imposes a mold of what masculinity is and homosexuality deviates, which threatens other men. On the flip side, again previously stated, women are especially empathetic to homosexual men. This could be because of the stereotypical idea that a homosexual man is a woman in a boys body, which would seem like an ideal friend to a straight woman.

Lesbians receive much less attention than gay men. There are a few reasons at hand for that one. A new trend these days is for teenage girls to be bisexual for bisexuals sake, or for the shock factor. Often time, straight men perceive lesbians to be “hot,” and might think that were they added to a lesbian situation, the girls would stop being lesbians and flock to them. Straight women generally don’t have a problem with lesbians. They generally don’t feel that their femininity is threatened as men do with gay men, nor do they feel any sense of lowered self image.

In all, there is a definite sense of which gender is well received and which is more accepting. In all, men are just more non accepting towards homosexual men than women are. This, unfortunately, leads to a fair number of hate crimes against homosexual men. This sentiment is not only apparent in our generation, but has been there for quite some time.

Participant Observation

For the past five or six years, I have been inquisitive about this homosexuality thing. It started out as a benign curiosity. What was it all about? Why do people have a problem with it? What is it? The further I inquired, the more mixed responses I got. I was quite confused. Then, as I grew, things came into perspective for me. In this section, I will discuss my findings in teenagers, adults, and the elderly.

Teenagers, I have found, either are either completely open with talking about homosexuality, or they dodge around the subject entirely. I have noticed that this dodging of the subject is generally a precursor to a self-discovery they make. I believe that they want to avoid the topic entirely because the more they are educated on it, the more they might find themselves in danger of falling under that category. Teenagers are,  I find, heavily influenced by those around them. That means that if there is ever a threat of being “different,” they thrive to dive back into the “normal” flow of things. Those who feel confident to speak about homosexuality are generally uninformed, but that is to be expected with any minority. Teenagers who feel they can talk about homosexuality, either view with a positive aspect, or they disagree with it, and will probably say that they’re on the fence. That would be another thing I’ve noticed. Due to the pressure for political correctness, people will lie out of their teeth if it’ll get them out of less trouble. Better to say that you don’t care either way than to admit that you dislike a sub-culture. That is because society has drilled thoughts into our head about being correct. Suddenly the word “negro” is racist, and the word gay is taboo. We are no longer children. Sex isn’t a dirty word. But society says that you need to be respectful. So opinion will always be coloured by that. No one wants to be wrong. Especially not a teenager.

Over the years, I’ve also talked to several adults about homosexuality. Despite the main occurring theme of them thinking that since they’re older than me, the know more than me and a general condescending attitude about it, I’ve found a similar trend. People in their thirties and fourties, they don’t want to say the word “Homosexual.” they shy away from it, or pause before they say it. They are hesitant to talk about it, but when they do, I’ve found an all around air of neutrality. They grew up during the homosexual rights movement, so it was sort of regular stuff for them. In fact, some even remember incidents like Stonewall. Its old news. They’re tired of hearing about it. Who cares. So what’s the problem? Why do we have such issues if a good portion of the population just doesn’t care either way?

The other group I’ve spoken to, though less extensively, is the elderly. People like my grandparents, who were born in the 30’s. I find their answers particularly intriguing, I must admit. Conversations with my with people like my Grandfather generally wield the same results. Negativity. The elderly just don’t like homosexuals, which due to some familial insight, I can understand. Back in their time, homosexuality was still budding, and the rights movement hadn’t gotten off its feet and convinced anyone. Not only that, but you had this, that and the other pedophile raping children, and it was automatically a homosexual. Therefore, through years of enforcement, the idea of pedophile and homosexual being mutually exclusive was pretty common.

After finding this information, I can understand why middle aged adults react negatively, when for the most part, they’re neutral on the issue. People are largely affected by their parents. If you have your parents saying something negative since the get-go, even if you’re neither here nor there on the issue, you’ll automatically go by what you know or are used to. That same sentiment eventually gets passed down to my own generation, but as the movement grows, and a less negative light in shined on homosexuality, people just seem to get it.

The Issue

Despite any arguments that could be made about how far we’ve come on the equality frontier, the point is that all this progression didn’t have to be made. Nothing was broken, so we didn’t need to fix it. But fix it we did, and several hundred years later, we’ve only made small footsteps. In this section, we will discuss the actual definition of hate crimes, same-sex marriage and portrayal of homosexuals in the media, followed by what we can do to fix it.

Hate crimes are, by definition, crimes that are based on predjudice against race, sexuality, gender, and religion among other things. Technically any crime is a hate crime, but by the dictionary and judicial system, anything that is based on something about that person makes it a hate crime. Hate crimes, however unpleasant, happen. People just cant seem to be civil in their quarrels and take it out with violence. A hate crime doesn’t have to be just physical though. Calling someone out, emotionally breaking them down or even outing someone would be a hate crime. As stated before, men are generally the perpetrator of hate crimes. In the united States in 2006, there were 1,195 known incidents of hate crimes based on sexuality. 747 of those were against male homosexuals. 163 were against lesbians. Those numbers speak for themselves. They don’t even take into account any non-reported incident. Hate crimes happen far more than they should.

The next issue is same-sex marriage. It is a bigger problem than hate crimes in some ways. Due to anti-homosexual sentiments, a homosexual couple will have to jump through numerous and unnecessary hoops just to get married.  While Canada has finally legalized same-sex marriage, countries like America are slow to follow, resisting heavily to the idea of equality. In fact, there are only a handful of countries that allow same-sex marriage. Most other places are not opposed to same-sex unions, but there aren’t quite as many benefits as marriage. There are even places that remain where the death penalty is enforced on homosexuals. We’ve come far, but obviously not far enough.

One of the most damaging things to the homosexual cause is media portrayal. When you turn on footage of a gay pride parade, you’ll see people dressed in extravagant clothing. Gay characters on sitcoms are completely over the top to the point of non-realism. Shows that are specifically about homosexuals or cater to them generally express the same over the top stereotype. People believe that all gay men dress well, have a sort of lisp, and act like a silly child most of the time. This is one issue that prevents a lot of people from taking homosexuals seriously. Not only is the image damaging, but it’s infectious. Young, impressionable teenagers and pre-teens see this garbage and emulate it, bringing the stereotype to life, because it’s the only example they have, so the cycle continues.

Hate crimes, Same-sex marriage, and the media. They don’t even sound like they should be big issues, and they really shouldn’t. There is no reason to try to bring another person down, physically or emotionally. People need to see people as people, not as heterosexuals or homosexuals. People strive for political correctness, but not for equality. We need to fix the problems that we have, not cover them up. Same-sex marriage is only an issue now because of dominant religions. Over time, religion has set a norm, and any variants from that norm must be eliminated. Same-sex marriage is no different. It is only an issue because some book somewhere, written hundreds of years ago says “Marriage is a man and a woman.” Marriage is a joining of two people in love. It shouldn’t matter what gender they are. Religion and state affairs should be separate, and society needs to stop imposing its rules on others. The problem with the media should be even less of an issue. Either the entertainment business one day decides to portray things in a realistic fashion, or maybe people need to stop believing everything that gets shoved into their face. Don’t believe everything that a small box tells you.

People need to get out there and inquire, think on their own, come to their own conclusions. All this comes back to is the use of common sense. There is no reason to be violent against another person for whatever reason. There is no reason to impose your own beliefs on others. That’s what makes them beliefs. They’re and yours and yours alone. Society needs to take a step back from its perception of everything around it and take stock of things. If “big” issues are clear as day to children, why cant anyone else see it? Society has become dependant on what other people tell us, and we need to fix this error, otherwise the cycle will repeat, more blood will be shed, more people will never get to enjoy life, which is the true crime in this. Life is precious. You only get one. Everyone should make the most of it, without the influence of others around you.