(July 27, 2020 at 3:02 am)Belacqua Wrote: That said, men who were known to go in for sodomy, and especially men who encouraged young people to do it, could be hunted down and persecuted. This went on very late. Oscar Wilde, for example, had his life ruined because he was said to have corrupted (seduced to sodomy) the son of a rich man. This rich man, by the way, the Marquess of Queensbury, was an outspoken atheist.
But if you read about Wilde's life, or about Andre Gide or Proust, it is clear that there is a kind of "community" of men in the know. They know who is welcoming and who isn't, where they can rent summer houses and where they can't, etc.
It may be that this isn't a "community" in the sense we're using it now. They seldom advocated for their rights or tried to influence public opinion. The world wasn't ready for that. But they supported each other and knew each other. Think of the play-house that the Baron de Charlus has put together for himself and his male friends near the end of Proust's novel. That was a kind of community, though not a political one.
I was surprised to discover that Tokyo had a thriving gay scene for years, even when America and Europe were behind. Several of the important translators and cultural critics in Japan in the 20th century were gay American servicemen in the post-war occupation who discovered that Japan was safer and more fun for them than back home. Seidensticker and Donald Keene and other names that expats all know. There is a funny story about the guy who translated the Nobel Prize winning Japanese novel into English who got bored at the Nobel banquet in Tokyo and ducked around the corner to a little gay SM club.
These examples of alleged persecution appear to be anecdotal. I’m really looking for an episode in history in which gays were persecuted. I readily admit that in different parts of the world, especially where Christianity and Islam are predominant, gays remained in the closet. There is no denying that homosexuality is considered absolutely evil and disgusting by many world religions. As a Muslim, I also conform to the traditional teaching of my Religion on this subject. Nonetheless, I find no clear example of gays being persecuted in history, even in the most orthodox and puritanical societies. And I believe your statement “this isn’t a community in the sense we’re using it now” has concluded the debate on this topic decisively in my favor. Thank you.
My aim in establishing this fact that the LGBTQ community is an invention of the 20th century is to build up a foundation for my academic thesis that this particular movement and community did not arise independently. Rather, it’s emergence and construction has been carefully planned and guided all along by an unseen hand, meaning by antagonistic forces behind the scenes, forces that have the capacity to shape the course of social and political evolution due to the incredible power they wield and wealth at their disposal. I am of course referring to the deep state and the banking establishment – the “powers that be” for lack of a better description. And one of the immediate aims, that has to a great extent been attained, in unleashing this new movement into the world, was to sabotage and undermine genuine civil rights movements and struggles for equality and justice which pose either a real or imagined threat to the hegemony of the “powers that be”.