In his book, The Queer Thing About Sin: Why the West Came to Hate Queer Love, historian Harry Tanner embarks on a journey back to antiquity to uncover the origins of homophobia. The work posits that far from being a timeless religious decree, the condemnation of queer love is a historical construct that gained traction during periods of crisis, inequality, and a rising obsession with 'self-control'.
Deconstructing the Myth of a Queer Utopia
Many in the LGBTQ+ community have looked to ancient Greece as a historical haven, a society that celebrated same-sex love. Tanner's research complicates this simplified image. While some city-states like Boeotia were known for male couples living as if married, others, such as archaic Sparta, had laws against gay relationships.
The book details a gradual but steady shift toward intolerance. For example, the once-thriving industry of pottery depicting gay sex abruptly ended around 450 BCE. A century later, men in Athens were being executed for same-sex acts. Tanner explains how even the celebrated love between Athens' democratic heroes, Harmodius and Aristogeiton, was later sanitized into a platonic, 'family-friendly' narrative—a pattern of erasure familiar to queer communities today.
Power, Slander, and Sex in Ancient Rome
The Roman Empire receives similar scrutiny. Tanner argues against the idea that Rome was a culture where queer love was universally normalized. Instead, he highlights how accusations of same-sex desire were often used as political slander to paint an opponent as morally degenerate and lacking self-control. Furthermore, much of what is recorded about same-sex acts was tied not to consensual love, but to power dynamics and the sexual violence inflicted upon enslaved people, who were not considered full human beings.
The Link Between Economic Crisis and Homophobia
One of the book's core arguments is the correlation between rising wealth inequality and growing intolerance. Tanner presents evidence suggesting that as societies became more unequal, they became less tolerant of difference. In times of economic hardship, a philosophical obsession with 'self-control' and austerity took hold, which in turn led to the condemnation of any non-procreative sexuality as excessive, unnatural, or even sick.
This pattern of scapegoating is a recurring theme. When societies faced crises like plagues or famines, queer people often became the target of blame. Tanner specifically points to a dark period in the Netherlands in the 1730s, when a moral panic, fueled by social and economic anxieties, led to mass arrests and executions of men accused of homosexuality. This historical event in our own country serves as a stark example of the book's central thesis.
Religion and the Inheritance of Prejudice
While it is common to blame Christianity for the West's history of homophobia, Tanner argues that the religion did not invent these prejudices but rather absorbed and codified them from the surrounding Greek and Roman cultures. Early Christian thinkers adopted existing homophobic ideologies, such as the image of the gay man as greedy, morally loose, and predatory. The book examines how biblical passages, like the story of Sodom (originally a tale about inhospitality), were later reinterpreted to justify the persecution of queer people.
By tracing these historical threads, The Queer Thing About Sin aims to show that homophobia is not an immutable truth but a tool used during times of social strain. The author connects these ancient patterns to the modern day, noting how similar rhetoric of 'excess' and 'corruption' is now being deployed against transgender and non-binary people. Understanding these historical roots, the book suggests, is a crucial step in dismantling the prejudice we still face today.
