The Dictionary of Homophobia (87 page)

Read The Dictionary of Homophobia Online

Authors: Louis-Georges Tin

Tags: #SOC012000

Newton, David.
Gay and Lesbian Rights: A Reference Handbook
. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1994.

Peddicord, Richard.
Gay and Lesbian Rights: A Question— Sexual Ethics or Social Justice?
Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1996.

Watts, Tim.
Gay Couples and the Law: A Bibliography
. Public Administrations Series P-2810. Monticello, IL:Vance, 1990.

—Criminalization; Decriminalization (France); Discrimination; European Law; Family; Marriage; Parenting.

JUSTINIAN I

The period under the reign of Byzantine emperor Justinian I (527–565 CE) was one which greatly repressed homosexuals, called
arsenokoites
or
androkoites
. Repression of male homosexuality was nothing new in the Eastern Roman Empire; sexual relations between women were known and attested to in historical sources, and there existed legislation that, in a general sense, condemned relations that were “
against nature
.” However, Justinian’s repression of male homosexuality was particularly solemn and severe, so much so that it had a significant impact on the population, and is referred to in the writings of Byzantine chroniclers at the time. Justinian’s policies in fact constitute a turning point in what we can today call the history of homophobia.

The concentration of legislation regarding male homosexuality during Justinian’s reign, including provisions for the punishment of male homosexuals, sheds light on the extent to which sexual relations between men became a state issue during this period. Such legislation consisted of a number of legal documents, but it is
Novella 141
, dating back to 559 CE, which established the most complete legal framework for the repression of homosexuality; addressed to the residents of Constantinople, the document was only concerned with sexual relations between men. The Christian context of this law was quite clear, as well as the arguments and terms it used offer insight into the political motives behind the oppression of homosexuals. Justinian justified the law by stating his desire to avoid the wrath of God; it was common in Byzantine texts to claim that disasters such as famine, earthquakes, and plague, as well as devastation brought about by the barbarians, were all consequences of God’s vengeance. According to Justinian, male homosexuality caused God’s wrath to visit upon what he now considered
Sodom
, where inextinguishable fires raged; and Justinian’s laws would effectively put out these fires. Thus his laws, which represent the punishment of Sodom, have a pedagogical aspect. The laws had to serve as a lesson to the citizens of the Empire by revealing the sacrilegious character of homosexuality. In justifying his measures, Justinian called attention to the condemnation of homosexuality by both the apostle
Paul
and the state, and underlined its unnatural character by stating that it was something that even animals did not partake in. Specifically, according to Justinian’s law, men who “corrupt[ed] themselves” had to cease to do so, let their “illness” be known to the “Patriarch,” and then make penance; those who did not would “be pursued, and … suffer the worst of punishments.” One might believe that this punishment would be death, but according to Byzantine chronicler Procopius, those accused of homosexuality were publicly denounced, and the guilty were castrated and put on public display. He specified that in the beginning, these measures were used as an excuse to control the Greens, a faction that opposed Justinian, as well as others who offended the state. However, Procopius’s statements must be taken in stride, given that they were polemical. Nonetheless, it is quite possible that accusations of homosexuality and the practice of castration were used as political weapons. Procopius stated the example of a young man named Basianos, whom Theodora, Justinian’s wife, accused of homosexuality simply because he offended her. She had him castrated, put to death, and then confiscated his possessions.

Other Byzantine authors confirm the wide implementation of this homophobic law, which even extended to men of the cloth. Jean Malalas and Theophanous told the story of two bishops, Isaiah of Rhodes and Alexander of Diospolis in Thrace, who, around 528, were accused of homosexual practices. They were brought to Constantinople, where they were judged, deposed from their Episcopal positions, and condemned. According to Theophanous, they were castrated and put on display throughout the city, while a crier declared, “As bishops, you must not soil your honorable cloth.” Malalas noted that “those who suffer from the desire for men” lived in constant fear of the severe measures taken by Justinian. In fact, a good number were arrested and died as a result of their castration.

This official attitude toward homosexuality must be examined in the context of other legislation under Justinian I, which was also harsh when dealing with issues relating to the
family
and morals. For example, men who suffered from impotence had their matrimonial rights reduced, and in 542, divorce by mutual consent was suppressed. The influence of Christian morality played a certain role, as demonstrated by Justinian’s numerous references to the
Bible
; we cannot underestimate his fear of divine punishment: earthquakes were both frequent and often quite devastating in the Byzantine Empire, and Constantinople was particularly at risk. The Empire also suffered from a widespread epidemic of the plague, and famines and barbarian raids occasionally struck its provinces.

When all is said and done, Justinian’s policies—by their extensiveness and their severity, as well as the fear they generated—mark an essential moment in the history of homophobia. The spectacle of castrating and publicly displaying those condemned are particularly cruel examples of how far the state was willing to go in order to deal with homosexuals. In its view, homosexuality was clearly outlawed, and everyone needed to know.
—Georges Sidéris

Cedrenus, Georgius.
Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae
. Edited by I. Bekker. Vol. 1. Bonn: 1838.

Corpus Iuris Civili
s. Vol. 3. Edited by R. Schöll, G. Kroll, and W. Kunkel. 6th ed. Berlin: 1959.

Malalas, Jean. “Ioannis Malalae Chronographia.”
Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae
35. (2000).

Procopius. “Anekdota” In
Procopii Caesariensis Opera Omnia
. Vol. 3.
Historia quae dicitur Arcana
. Edited by J. Haury Leipzig, 1906. G. Wirth, 1963.

Sidéris, Georges.
Les Anges du Palais. Eunuques, sexes et pouvoir à Byzance (IVe – VIIe s
.
)
. Paris: Brepols, 2003.

Theophanous.
Theophanis Chronographia
. Vol. 1. Edited by C. de Boor. Leipzig, Germany: Teubner, 1883.

Further Reading:

The Institutes of Justinian: Text, Translation, and Commentary
. J. A. C. Thomas. New York: American Elsevier Publishing Company, 1975.

—Against Nature; Bible, the; Damien, Peter; Judaism; Paul (of Tarsus); Sodom and Gomorrah; Theodosius l; Theology.

K

KOREA

There are no dictionaries of Korean language which contain the word “homophobia”; however, out of eighteen dictionaries consulted, seventeen define homosexuality as “a sexual
perversion
.” The effects of homophobia and heterosexism, just like sexism or racism, are not always apparent but are nonetheless hostile, and in fact, attacks against homosexuals seem to be on the rise in Korea.

Documents that reveal the traditional negative attitude toward homosexual relations first appeared during the era of the Joseon (or Yi) dynasty that ruled the country for over 500 years, from 1392 to 1910 CE. Prior to this, the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392) had promoted
Buddhism
, but the new rulers accused their predecessors of
debauchery
and homosexuality, and imposed their own form of neo-Confucianism that favored the familial hierarchy, male domination, the separation of the sexes, and sexual purity. It was during the reign of Sejong (1418–50), the fourth king of the Joseon dynasty, that homosexual relations were condemned for the first time, when he imposed a punishment of 100 lashes on concubines believed to have had sexual relations with other concubines. In the eighteenth year of his reign, when his son’s wife was caught in bed with one of his concubines, he banished her from the royal court. She was subsequently murdered by her father, who then committed suicide.

In practice, the political application of Confucianism in Korea appeared around the seventh century. The principle of obedience to the king evolved, thanks to the sexual ideology of the yin/yang duality, into the more general obedience to the male; as an adjunct to this, the idea of relations between people of the same sex (yin/yin or yang/yang) was thus viewed as
against nature
. Under the Joseon dynasty, the pressure to be heterosexual brought forth a system of familial succession that was doubly stringent: only a male could occupy the role of head of the
family
; and in the absence of a son, the family line would be extinguished, much to the horror of parents and elders. As to the elevation of his social status, the son occupied a preeminent place in the family structure and assumed the role of the father after his death. Thus, an act that went against the paternal authority violated not only the natural order, but also that of society.

Even today, the preference for male children, which has historically resulted in selective abortion and the infanticide of female babies, creates an imbalance in the gender ratio, although it has improved over the years. In 2006, there were 107 male babies to every 100 female; while this imbalance is still above the normal standard, in the 1990s it was even more pronounced. Further, in the case of parents having a third or fourth child, the ratio was 179 and 205 (respectively) boys to 100 girls in 1995. Taking into account all aspects of daily life, Confucianism and the yin/yang ideology generally view sexuality in a negative light (a view shared by
Christianity
). However, homosexual relations were in fact common at one time, and even enjoyed a certain level of social acceptance among the
yangban
(the class of scholarly elite) and the
namsandang
(troupes of men, artists, and acrobats who would travel from village to village). The young men who accompanied the
namsandang
, called
midong
(beautiful boys), would dress attractively, often (though not always) wearing girls’ clothing. However, if a
midong
reached marrying age but wished to maintain his effeminate status, he would be considered an undesirable, perverted, and strongly stigmatized as a result. In the same way, homosexuality proper was rejected; it was considered a social problem, and those who practiced it were accused of threatening the ideology of the genders by deviating from hetero-normativity (a situation that it not uncommon today).

In the nineteenth century, Catholicism was introduced to Korea not by priests, but by books imported by scholars. By disseminating knowledge in this way rather than preaching, Christianity succeeded in spreading quickly. In the beginning, Christians had difficulty convincing the public that sexuality was for procreation only and that homosexuality was a
sin
, but eventually the concepts took hold. Today, religious communities in Korea are composed of fundamentalists who, through their missions, tirelessly spread virulent homophobic messages through television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet.

In the twentieth century, Korea underwent numerous changes: first, occupation by Japan (1910-45); then the division of the South, provisionally under American control, from the North, under Soviet control, in the aftermath of World War II; and finally, the Korean War (1950-53). North Korea’s isolationism makes it difficult to confirm what life is like there for homosexuals, but it is understood that homosexuality is considered a social plague, as it was in other, now former
communist
countries. In the South, after having undergone many hardships, the government propelled the country into the industrialized age, where any appearance of deviation from the national agenda is strongly discouraged.

In the 1960s, a homosexual subculture emerged in Nakwon (Paradise), a district (
dong
) in Seoul; during this same period, many new derogatory expressions were coined, including
pogal
, formed by reversing
kalbo
, the latter a vulgar word for prostitutes as well as any person engaging in debauchery; and
dongseong yeon’aeja
, meaning a man who makes love only with men. Up until contact was made with the Western gay world, the word “homo” was occasionally used by homosexuals themselves, then by heterosexuals as an insult. The term “gay” was also used, but usually to designate a transgender person. The most popular word is still
iban
(“different person”), referring to the homosexual identity (just like “queer” in the West). The origins of
iban
are not known, but the term is a play on the word
ilban
(ordinary person).

During the 1970s, medical theories around homosexuality gained currency, especially after the publication of a study that suggested that the low number of homosexuals in South Korea was the result of the country’s sexual maturity and its yin/yang culture. Through the reaffirmation of gender norms and the importation of Western ideas regarding
inversion
, Korean
psychiatry
determined that homosexuality was dysfunctional and socially unacceptable, at the same time that western medicine was changing its tune and no longer connecting homosexuality to mental illness.

Social
discrimination
and legal repression eventually gave rise to new sexual identities in South Korea, and a new culture of public expression began to develop. When LGBT activists started favoring homosexual visibility in the 1990s, the homophobic responses simply got louder, reaffirming the claim that homosexuality was a
peril
to the stability, morality, and health of Korean society. From that point on, homophobia was no longer an abstract belief; it became more and more a religious doctrine, a political conviction, a discriminatory practice, and a scientific fallacy based on “tradition” and “natural” law.

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