We Must Never Forget That Being Gay Was A Crime
By Steven Skelley
We must never forget that, until very recently, just being gay was a serious crime that was punishable in horrific ways. It has only been eighteen years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that being homosexual was not a crime. It has only been six years since the U.S. Supreme Court barely decided by one vote that homosexuals must be allowed the same marriage laws as heterosexuals. How easily people forget.
Here are some things to remember:
* In early Virginia, homosexuality was punishable by execution. Thomas Jefferson attempted to change the punishment to castration but his idea was rejected by the legislature.
* By 1962, sodomy / homosexuality was a felony in every state. Punishments included imprisonment and hard labor.
* Idaho's sodomy / homosexuality convictions earned a life sentence.
* Michigan's sodomy / homosexuality convictions earned 15 years imprisonment. A second conviction earned a life sentence.
* As late as the 1960's and 1970's, New York and California laws made it illegal for bars to serve alcohol to a gay person.
* In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5 to 4 decision that a consensual sex between same-sex adults was still illegal and punishable by imprisonment.
* It wasn't until 2003 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas that laws prohibiting private homosexual activity, sodomy, and oral sex between consenting adults are unconstitutional. Some states and territories refused to comply.
* It wasn't until 2005 that Puerto Rico repealed its sodomy laws.
* It wasn't until 2006 that Missouri repealed its law against homosexuality.
* It wasn't until 2013, that Montana removed sexual contact or sexual intercourse between two persons of the same sex from its definition of deviate sexual conduct.
Millions of people throughout human history have been born gay like me. Some societies valued us. Cave drawings and art from the Mesolithic period in on Sicily, Bethlehem, Zimbabwe, Czech Republic, Egypt and more depict LGBTQ members of society.
Three hundred years before Christ, the Sacred Band of Thebes is documented. The Sacred Band was an elite fighting force made up of 150 gay couples. They were so fierce, though outnumbered, they defeated the mighty Spartans. They finally fell to Philip of Macedonia.
Native American / Indigenous communities welcomed and honored LGBTQ people for centuries before conquering Europeans forced bigotry and religious persecution upon them. These Two Spirit people were considered valuable assets who were able to view both the male and female perspective.
Even though my LGBTQ family has been sharing this planet with heterosexuals since the beginning of time, prevailing religions have been victorious in suppressing us, imprisoning us and killing us for being born the way we are.
We must never forget.
Steven Skelley
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Article by Steven Skelley and Thomas Routzong
Copyright 2021 Sunny Harbor Publishing
THE ODE OF THE SACRED BAND
by Steven Skelley
The Ode of the Sacred Band
By Steven Skelley
Let me tell you a tale that may leave some aghast
How the bravest of brave men were erased from the past
In a time before ours recorded in stone
Men hacked sword to sword and sword to the bone
You doubtless know some tales of the Greeks
Whose wisdom still teaches and whose art still speaks
But what you have learned is less than the whole
To reveal what is missing is this old man's goal
The Greeks were divided into mighty city states
United by gods and goals and fates
They bonded as one to repel every foe
And recorded each battle savage blow by blow
But when foes were defeated their blood lust turned
To attacks on each other for the loot they had earned
Delphi the city state was just one of these
With Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Thebes
Delphi was known as the spiritual one
Corinth had architecture second to none
Athens had silver and democracy
Thebes traded in oil and jewelry
City state Sparta is remembered today
For its warrior people and warrior ways
They used actions and words to intimidate
They attacked their foes and other city states
Sparta marched toward Thebes their intended quarry
Expecting to gain valued territory
But Sparta bit off more than they could chew
Because Thebes was prepared for their rendezvous
Thebes had Special Forces known far and wide
Three hundred fearsome warriors all battle-tried
One hundred and fifty gay couples all fought
Each tandem a fearsome juggernaut
At Tegyra eighteen hundred Spartans came
But The Sacred Band of three hundred put them to shame
In Leuctra twelve thousand attacked again
And were defeated by half as many Theban men
The Sacred Band of Thebes were warriors most elite
For decades they seemed immune to defeat
To Philip of Macedonia they finally fell
Thirty-three thousand invaders they could not repel
Philip shed tears, Plutarch would write
He commended their love, their bravery, their might
Philip had the lovers buried side by side
Hand in hand in the ground where they died
A stone lion was placed on the bloody sand
To honor the courage of The Sacred Band
But religions arose that hated to see
Gay couples treated so respectfully
Men knocked the monument to the ground
And erased the history that they found
They refused to acknowledge the Sacred Band’s story
They were afraid to give homosexuals glory
Two thousand years later we must stay loud
To drown out those voices that want us cowed
Back to back with our lovers we must stand
And carry on the courage of The Sacred Band
Copyright 2023 Steven Skelley
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