India’s renowned medical text, the Sushruta Samhita, describes homosexual, transgender and intersex conditions as inborn and incurable.

Plato further writes: “Same-sex love is regarded as shameful by barbarians and by those who live under despotic governments, just as philosophy is regarded as shameful by them.”Ĥ00.

Plato and Xenophon, two prominent disciples of Socrates, describe their teacher as “helpless” among beautiful, adolescent boys. On the island of Lesbos in Greece, Sappho becomes highly regarded as a female poet and writes many poems speaking of love and infatuation between women.Ĥ45. The custom of castrating homosexual slaves and house servants is introduced into Persia from conquered Assyria and Media.Ħ00. Eighth-century Greek epics like the Iliad and Odyssey portray homosexual unions between gods and young men such as Zeus and Ganymede, Poseidon and Pelops, Apollo and Hyacinth, etc.ħ00. The Shatapatha Brahmana, a text from India’s Vedic Period, mentions homosexual union between the brother-gods, Mitra and Varuna. The Code of Assura from Middle Assyria prescribes castration for soldiers caught engaging in passive homosexual behavior.Ĩ00. The Jewish prophet Moses condemns crossdressing and homosexuality in the Torah (Book of Leviticus), punishing the latter by death for both men and women.ġ075. The Contendings of Horus and Seth, a text of Egypt’s early Middle Kingdom, narrates a homosexual union between the two gods.ġ200.

The custom of castrating homosexual slaves and house servants is established in Ancient Assyria.Ģ040. An Egyptian tomb of two royal manicurists, Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, depicts the couple embracing and nose kissing with the inscription “joined in life and joined in death.”Ģ100.

One of the earliest Egyptian pharaohs associated with homosexuality is King Neferkare, who is described having an affair with his top military commander, Sasenet, during the Sixth Dynasty.Ģ450. Legendary Chinese Emperor, Huang Di, is described having male lovers and is by no means alone in the history of China’s ancient ruling monarchs.Ģ460. The Mahabharata of India describes how Arjuna was well-received in the palace of Maharaja Virata while spending one year as a crossdressing transgender.Ģ697. The world’s earliest depictions of homosexuality are found in the ancient San rock paintings of Zimbabwe, Africa.ģ100.

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