Originally posted 2022-09-12 12:33:30.
What does the word ‘homosexual’ actually mean?
Over the last five years I have read deeply into the historical and modern context of the word ‘homosexual’ and how its usage evolved, from it being coined in the nineteenth century.
The word ‘homosexual’ as it is now understood in the West, was not so understood, anywhere, until the 20th century. It did not become general even there until after Kinsey published in the early 1950s, and was not dominant till much later. Whether you consider that sex between two males must be ‘homosexual’ or not, and I do not, that does not mean that either or both parties are themselves ‘homosexual’. One is an activity, the other is a personality type, formerly known as a ‘catamite’. Conflating these has been most unhelpful.