The first time you heard of homosexuality

[Myrtonos]

If you are not have never have been attracted to the same sex, what was it like the first time you heard of homosexuality.

 

[BrokenBoy]

If you are not have never have been attracted to the same sex, what was it like the first time you heard of homosexuality.

I've been attracted to the same sex but that was not the first time I've heard of it.

 

[NothingToSeeHere]

Primary school, 2 of my teachers where lesbians.

 

[Daydreamer]

I've been attracted to the same sex but that was not the first time I've heard of it.

Likewise.

When I was around eight years old, a female friend of mine pretended to get married to me. She asked a few of the older kids if we'd ever get married when we were older. They explained that we wouldn't be able to since we were both girls (gay marriage wasn't legal in the UK back then, although I'm not sure what the ruling was on civil partnerships). I found this odd, because I thought "Why would two women get married anyway?" since I didn't know that it was possible to be anything other than straight.

I found out about terms such as gay mainly from seeing online hatred and hearing gay jokes. So my introduction was rather negative and I held some rather toxic misconceptions as a result. Even before I knew, there were people that made gay jokes about me. I had to face my homophobia when I found myself falling for a girl but I was initially in denial about it.

 

[AspieOtaku]

In church when i used to go when i was young it was seen as bad and evil, yet i have gay friends who are nice people i left church long ago.

 

[PinkPenguin29]

I'm Bi, but I didn't know about homosexuality until 10 or 11, my obsession with breasts didn't make sense until highschool when I started noticing other girls my age. Even then it was still very confusing for me, because I grew up with the idea there's only one way to live, get maBut some scary stuff happened to another kid who was openly gay and it made me afraid to talk openly
I remember trying to talk about homosexuality with my father only to find he had a lot of misconceptions about the subject so I never came out to him. I remember my cousin making me go see Chuck and Larry, which she found hilarious and I found offensive. I tried to explain that Gay people don't act like that, which she defensively responded "yes they do".
I remember when my step brother was suspicious , I confided that my 'friend' was actually a girlfriend. He then made jokes, although promising to keep it secret, he also accused me of wanting to have a Penis. Not fully understanding people who are attracted to the same sex aren't automatically transgender. 15 years later he changed dramatically and knows better.

Eventually I met a man and married him, and I'm very happy.
But after highschool and before meeting my husband I denied myself a full relationship with any woman I dated because fear of judgment, disappointing others if I ever became serious enough with someone.

 

[Judge]

1965- And it wasn't kind. A subject exclusively limited to bad jokes by both children and adults.

 

[Rabscuttle]

I'd've been about four years old, I think, and something came up on the news. I asked my father what "homosexuality" was, and he said, uncomfortably, "It's a grownup thing". True enough, I suppose, but hardly a satisfactory answer. "But what is it?" I asked, at which point he clammed up and changed the channel.

Now, no self-respecting four-year-old is going to let a question go like that, and I was a self-respecting four-year-old who knew how to read (teaching myself that was the best decision I ever made), so I looked it up in a dictionary, and understood nothing of what I read. I looked it up in our encyclopedia, and wound up even more confused. So I asked my mother, who was very surprised (how often does that question come up from a toddler, after all?), and she gave me a short and simple rundown. "Okay," I said, remembering the tone of the guy on the news, "and what's wrong with that?"

There's a certain type of common sense small children have that most adults seem to lose somewhere along the way. Mom was nonplussed, but ultimately said "Well, it's unusual, and that makes some people uncomfortable."
"But don't you always tell me that 'different' doesn't mean 'bad'?"
"Yes..."
"I think grown-ups need to watch Mister Rogers." And I wandered off.

 

[Tom]

I don't really remember. As an analogy I don't remember actually believing in Santa Claus. My memory is only of knowing it was my parents and siblings. So it is that I don't remember not knowing about homosexuality. My best guess is that I probably picked it up from watching Movies/TV or in my reading which started early. Or perhaps the news, as my childhood was during the turbulent 60's/70s. I believe I thought it strange, but also sympathized with them for being persecuted. So it was always a live and let live thing for me.

 

[Thinx]

I think it's very offensive to label same sex relationships as sinful. I feel sorry for anyone who is so misguided as to do so, because Our Lord is gonna give them one heck of a tough time when they get to the pearly gates. He doesn't like his children to trash one another.

 

[Kalinychta]

I don’t remember exactly, but I do recall hearing boys call each other “gay” as an insult in elementary school. All through high school, too, of course. As an adult, I can’t wrap my mind around why what two consenting adults do in their own bedroom is anyone’s bloody business but their own. Strange world.

 

[Jumpback]

People we went camping with, the wife left the husband for another woman when I was about 13. Or at least that’s how the story was presented to me.

I imagine that there is a big difference between a lot of things with people raised pre-1990s and after 1990s. Growing up in the country in the 80s with very protective parents who only allowed us the watch G rated movies until we were fairly older, I think that I was about 14 before I figured how how babies were made.

I know it sounds incredibly backwards, but outside of being a misfit for having autistic type issues, or I guess the same thing could be said for gays, it was nice because kids were allowed to be kids.

Nowadays where I grew up there are meth addicts and so on, but back then we didn’t even lock our doors except at night because crime was close to non existent

 

[Jumpback]

The church has always considered same sex relationships sinful for the past 2,000 years based on Christian teaching that the primary purpose of sex is procreation. Christians see the pleasure as a reward for being open to the possibility of procreation. Enjoying the pleasure without accepting the responsibility that goes along with it is a selfish act. That's why Christians believe self pleasure, contraception, bestiality, and same sex acts are sinful. Furthermore, since the family unit is important for society and children deserve and are best raised by a father and a mother in an indissoluble marriage, any sex acts outside of marriage are sinful whether it's same sex, adultery, or fornication. It's important to note that, according to Christian teaching, same sex attraction, while disordered, is not sinful, just as a man being attracted to his neighbor's wife is not sinful.

Everyone considered same sex relationships sinful all throughout history. It wasn't until very recently in modern history that regressive views became popular in some parts of the world.

The thing about the ancient world is Ancient Greece was a huge exception. Greek men married later, and this seems to have resulted in a culture of pederasty, where teen boys were viewed as objects of affection. This probably later spread to this idea that military forces would fight better if there were homosexual bonds. At points, like with the Sacred Band of Thebes, it was required that you have a male lover if you wanted to fight in the elite military.

Sacred Band of Thebes - Wikipedia

Homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece - Wikipedia

Pederasty in ancient Greece - Wikipedia

But then what happened is Alexander the Great who was educated in Athens and almost certainly had a male lover about his age conquered most of the Western civilized world, and spread Greek ideals, known as Hellenism

Hephaestion - Livius

The Hellenistic World: The World of Alexander the Great

Wealthy ancient people including Romans and so in idealized Greek culture and probably spoke Greek to each other, why the first copy of the New Testament was written in Greek

You get things like the Warren Cup which was made during Jesus lifetime and found where Jesus had been, depicting homosexual acts, very possibly with slaves, one of which is clearly underage by today's standards, that might have been everyday if not somewhat strange dinnerware at someplace with more Hellenized (Greek) views in Judea

Warren Cup - Wikipedia

Paul likely wrote things from Epistle to the Romans and Corinthians which mention homosexuality while he was staying in Corinth, which is in Greece.

Tiberius, the main Roman Emperor during Jesus life had a boy problem

The majority of early Roman emperors seemed to have had severe sexual perversion issues and most engaged in gay sex. Nero, who carried out the first slaughter of Christians seems to married one two different men.

https://historycollection.com/scandalous-love-lives-early-roman-emperors/3/

————————-

So, you can sort of see where Paul and so on got their ideas from

But the thing is that there was a lot of messed up things that people were doing back then. Roman emperors also had all kinds of insestuous relationships with mothers and sisters and these half animal half human ancient gods or creatures didn't come from no where

I think Christianity sort of came along and was like enough with all these things. But I am not sure the message was meant to be taken quite as literally as it has been taken with gays and so on.

 

[Sara3]

I don't remember. What I know is that many of them have suffered a lot due to intolerance. The ones who label them as evil just because of their sexual orientation show little empathy and are extremely narrow-minded.
Also I'd like to tell the gay community that as you may find some people attacking you for stupid reasons, you will also find people supporting you. So, don't give up and fight for your rights.
Also, as a member of the autistic community I can relate to the injustice of being wronly labeled and misunderstood.

 

[Jumpback]

The thing about the ancient world is Ancient Greece was a huge exception. Greek men married later, and this seems to have resulted in a culture of pederasty, where teen boys were viewed as objects of affection. This probably later spread to this idea that military forces would fight better if there were homosexual bonds. At points, like with the Sacred Band of Thebes, it was required that you have a male lover if you wanted to fight in the elite military.

Sacred Band of Thebes - Wikipedia

Homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece - Wikipedia

Pederasty in ancient Greece - Wikipedia

But then what happened is Alexander the Great who was educated in Athens and almost certainly had a male lover about his age conquered most of the Western civilized world, and spread Greek ideals, known as Hellenism

Hephaestion - Livius

The Hellenistic World: The World of Alexander the Great

Wealthy ancient people including Romans and so in idealized Greek culture and probably spoke Greek to each other, why the first copy of the New Testament was written in Greek

You get things like the Warren Cup which was made during Jesus lifetime and depicting homosexual acts, very possibly with slaves, that might have been everyday if not somewhat strange dinnerware at someplace with more Hellenized (Greek) views in Judea

Warren Cup - Wikipedia

Paul likely wrote things from Epistle to the Romans and Corinthians which mention homosexuality while he was staying in Corinth, which is in Greece.

Tiberius, the main Roman Emperor during Jesus life had a boy problem

The majority of early Roman emperors seemed to have had severe sexual perversion issues and most engaged in gay sex. Nero, who carried out the first slaughter of Christians seems to married one two different men.

https://historycollection.com/scandalous-love-lives-early-roman-emperors/3/

————————-

So, you can sort of see where Paul and so on got their ideas from

But the thing is that there was a lot of messed up things that people were doing back then. Roman emperors also had all kinds of insestuous relationships with mothers and sisters and these half animal half human ancient gods or creatures didn't come from no where

I think Christianity sort of came along and was like enough with all these things. But I am not sure the message was meant to be taken quite as literally as it has been taken with gays and so on.

Pompeii in Rome was buried in a volcano in 79 AD. Penises as art or good luck charms were everywhere, this statue of a god having anal sex with a male goat was just a normal garden statue. Erotic art of all kinds were very common.

I kind of think all of this together is what Paul and so on thought was wrong. I'm just not sure that he meant things quite as literally as they have been taken at times.

 

[Jumpback]

Lupanar - Wikipedia

"Early Pompeian excavators, guided by the strict modesty of the time period, quickly classified any building containing erotic paintings as brothels. Using this metric, Pompeii had 35 lupanares. Given a population of ten thousand in Pompeii during the first century AD, this leaves one brothel per 286 people or 71 adult males."

And these brothels seem to have been largely staffed by slaves, probably including heterosexual male slaves forced into being homosexual prostitutes. The problem with heterosexual slaves being forced into things was maybe a significant problem.

I think that context is everything, and when Paul and early Christians and so on were saying things, things weren't like today, they were like if NAMBLA (North American man boy love association) was actually a powerful force in society.

So I kind of feel like liberals do not understand what early Christians were up against and how they would completely agree with a lot of things if they just knew the context

And I don't think early Christians were actually trying to condemn some poor effeminate 13 year old gay kid, like more they were up against this horrible breakdown in moral values, like as heterosexual men and boy slaves, they did not want to be forced into gay prostitution, and they would also feel bad for the 13 year old gay kid

Like I feel like early Christians complaints were more along the lines of being outraged over prison rape and pedophilia, and things got so bad that modern issues like a gay kid who can't help but be gay never even crossed their minds. Like early Christians were poor and slaves and so on, what was on their minds is things like not wanting to be a heterosexual guy turned into a homosexual prostitute slave

To me, it's kind of a major misunderstanding. You cannot view the ancient world through any modern frame of reference, you kind of have to think of things like what if the most crazy of crazy of crazy far leftists were in charge of morality, like people who think man boy love and sex with animals and so on are just good ideas are the people in power.

 

[AspieOtaku]

scientific facts and educational in a rational matter.

 

[Kalinychta]

scientific facts and educational in a rational matter.

Yep, that about sums it up. I can’t believe that in the year 2020 this is still controversial.

 

[Daydreamer]

Yep, that about sums it up. I can’t believe that in the year 2020 this is still controversial.

I can, unfortunately. These days I still experience homophobia, but to a lesser extent. Even the past homophobia I've experienced still has an effect. I'm just fortunate that I live somewhere and I'm at a point in my life where I'm allowed to be openly gay. Some people don't even have that. However, even here it's not always easy. I got physically attacked once and spat at because they didn't like it. That was seven years ago and I still think about it even now. I'm glad that I have accepting friends and I have developed something of a thick skin but it's not impenetrable.

 

[AspieOtaku]

Yep, that about sums it up. I can’t believe that in the year 2020 this is still controversial.

Too many stubborn backwards people being taught from the past from radical religious brainwashing.