Michel Foucault's books on sexuality are quite good in this debate.
He shows how ancient Rome and Greece were against homosexual acts but only as a guideline, an idea of best practice.
Abrahamic religions are against homosexual acts and feminine behaviour in men. But are also against what many would call 'masculine' behaviour - aggressiveness, sexual conquest, roughness.
The idea of homosexuality as an identity and even a 'race'/type of person does occur in pre-modern times, but this concept gains ground in modernity, along with racial theories and the idea of social classes.
This concept of homosexuals as fully and innately homosexual has the unintended consequence of giving political power to gay people, to provide a platform for political change.
I don't think we can ever point to the start of homophobia. Just to the origins of modern homophobia and how it has developed.
(, Wed 23 Jan 2013, 21:34, Share, Reply)