A History of Homosexuality

Paper Summary:

This paper begins with a discussion of the origins of the term "homosexual." It continues with an outline of beliefs about homosexuals through the ages, and the development of theories of homosexuality through modern times.

From the Paper:

"Although homosexual practices might have begun in the early centuries, the word "sodomy" was first used by a Catholic missionary, now a saint, Father Peter Damien around 1050. By sodomy, he meant masturbation and anal intercourse between men, a sin he condemned as the most perverse of sexual sins in his long letter to the Pope, entitled "the Book of Gomorrah." He emphasized that God designed sex exclusively for procreation and that the enjoyment of the sexual act outside this divine purpose was unnatural and therefore summarily grievously and wickedly sinful."

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