A few figures from ancient Mediterranean mythology are sometimes held up as LGBTQ ancestors ' such as the Greek gods Apollo and Zeus, who both loved other men. But in a mythology course I taught in the fall of 2021, I found myself highlighting a number of other stories about same-sex attraction and gender variance beyond a strict male-female binary. For example, spells from Egypt show that there were women who tried to get other women to fall in love with them. The course explores literary texts from the ancient Mediterranean ' including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Roman Italy ' in which authors describe relationships that can be said to fall under the LGBTQ umbrella. We read the texts in chronological order, rather than grouped by theme or identity. This allows students to encounter the texts relatively label-free, since the words U.S. society uses to talk about gender and sexuality today ' like 'gay' or 'transgender' ' do not always align with ancient understandings. My goal is for students to take courage and hope from knowing that same-sex relationships and gender diversity have existed in various guises for millennia. In antiquity, homosexuality was not considered an identity category the way it is today, making it hard to determine if and how LGBTQ-like people were discriminated against, but they certainly were not always met with contempt. For example, the body of Hermaphroditus, a god whom Greeks sought out for help with fertility and child care issues, combined female and male characteristics....
The vast majority of Catholic women have used contraceptives, despite the church's ban. Fifty-six percent of U.S. Catholics believe abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances, whether or not they believe they would ever seek one. One in four Americans who have had abortions are Catholic, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for reproductive health. It's a clear reminder of the complex relationship between any religious tradition's teachings and how people actually live out their beliefs. With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that protects abortion rights nationwide, religious attitudes toward a woman's right to end a pregnancy are in the spotlight. But even within one faith, there is no one religious position toward reproductive rights ' let alone among different faiths. When it comes to official stances on abortion, religions' positions are tied to different approaches to some key theological concepts. For instance, for several religions, a key issue in abortion rights is 'ensoulment,' the moment at which the soul is believed to enter the body ' that is, when a fetus becomes human....
Historians are rediscovering one of the most important LGBTQ activists of the early 20th Century ' an Asian Canadian named Li Shiu Tong. You probably don't know the name, but he was at the center of the first wave of gay politics. Much has been written about Li's older boyfriend, Magnus Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld was a closeted German doctor and sexologist who became famous in the 1930s as a defender of gay people. In books on Hirschfeld, Li is usually just a footnote. When Li died in Vancouver in 1993, his unpublished manuscript about sexuality was thrown in the trash. Luckily, it was rescued by a curious neighbor and eventually ended up in an archive. Since then, only a handful of people, myself included, have read it. Born in 1907 in Hong Kong, Li was a 24-year-old studying medicine at a university in Shanghai when he met Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld, then 63 years old, had come to China to give public lectures about the science of sex. The year was 1931. The Shanghai newspapers billed Hirschfeld as the world's foremost expert on sexuality. Li must have seen the papers, because he made sure to catch Hirschfeld's very first lecture. In medical school, Li had read all he could about homosexuality, then a very controversial topic. He had often encountered Hirschfeld's name, and he knew his reputation as a defender of homosexuals. Whether he suspected that the famous sexologist was gay is a mystery. Almost no one in the 1930s could afford to be out ' it would have destroyed either man's career....
Gender and sexuality freedoms ' or rights, as they are more typically called ' are about bodily autonomy, diversity and inclusivity. Feminist and LGBTQ+ activists assert that every human being deserves respect, recognition and equal rights regardless of their gender or sexuality. When he first ascended to the presidency, image-makers used Putin's KGB background and penchant for physical fitness to frame him as a macho strongman who could reverse Russia's waning power and 'remasculinize' the country after a decade of supposed geopolitical flaccidity in the wake of the Soviet collapse. Putin likewise used homophobic terms to dismiss Georgia's Rose Revolution in 2003, responding to a reporter's question by saying: 'A rose revolution ' next they'll come up with a light blue one.' In Russian, 'light blue' or goluboi is slang for 'gay male.' However, even as the leader of a personalist dictatorship ' a regime in which there are few institutional limits on the leader's power ' Putin must balance competing interests among significant elites and maintain at least the appearance of public support in order to be considered a legitimate ruler....
