Gay sex history is long and colourful. Not only the
societal attitude towards gay
sex
has differed depending on epochs and geographical locations, but also
the forms of homosexual relationship were subject to evolution
throughout gay sex history.
There is evidence that gay sex was practiced as early as in ancient
times. Some artefacts from various countries testifying to the fact
that men slept with men at those times include pottery, pictures, etc.
In some regions of Greece, for example, it was common for noble men to
engage in anal sex
with young boys, which was considered a kind of an upbringing
procedure. However, gay sex between two grown-up men was still frowned
upon.
In the late Middle Ages gays used to get together in public latrines,
toilets, baths or “stews”, and there were even
certain town
districts favored by them, quays and docks being a typical example.
A number of reports dating from eighteenth century England state that
men would be offering love for money in public parks competing
in
popularity with female prostitutes.
On the whole, information about gay sex history of those days can be
drawn from legal acts and trial scripts dealing with cases of gay sex.
At that, the word “gay” itself was then used in the
meaning
of “happy” and “carefree”. It
was only later
that it acquired the negative connotation of carelessness equaling to
dissipation or lechery and got to be referred to homosexuals.
The Germany of 19th century had gay sex legalized in many states and it
was probably one of the happy periods in gay sex history. There were
many publications and gay societies at that time so people could enter
into gay relationship freely.
The early 20th century saw another swing in gay sex history. Contrary
to our days’ popularization of pronounced masculinity in gay
image, it was not infrequent then to see gay sex workers wearing
women’s costumes and make-up.
It is also interesting to observe that oral gay sex
did not become popular until the middle 20th century. Contemporary
statistical data, whatever scarce it might be, show that only about 5%
of gay men would practice fellatio regularly. At that period of gay sex
history the main forms of gay sex were anal intercourse, mutual
masturbation, intercrural intercourse and different kinds of frottage.
A terrible time for all gays came with the Nazis power. Official files
say, around 50 thousand gays were killed from 1933 to 1943, and there
are suffiecient grounds to believe that the figures should be doubled
in reality. The pink triangle tags worn on clothes were the signs
indicating homosexuality and in fact implying subsequent death sentence.
Nowadays, despite the general liberalization of moral views, it is
still impossible to say that all people have developed due
understanding and tolerance to the issue. However, we can definitely
speak of some positive trends, as homosexuality is not any more
considered an illness, and several countries even have single-sex marriages
legalized. There are reasons to believe, gay sex history still has many
important events in store.
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