Loving
LOVING: A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s–1950s portrays the history of romantic love between men in hundreds of moving and tender vernacular photographs. Taken over a century, at a time when male partnerships were often illegal, these images narrate a story of astonishing joy, the universal story of what love looks like.
Gathered over 20 years, the collection includes photos from all over the world, each a celebration of two people in love, given away by an unmistakable look in their eyes, or by body language as subtle as one hand grazing another.
In ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, glass negatives, tin types, cabinet cards, photo postcards, photo strips, and snapshots, the book also covers a century of social history and the development of photography. Read more…
The ancient army of gay lovers
In the fourth century BC, a fearsome army named the Sacred Band of Thebes was formed, and it was made up entirely of gay couples.
Lawmakers in countries across the world have been banning LGBT+ people from their militaries for more than a century, from America’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and trans military ban, to the UK’s ban on LGBT+ people in the armed forces, which was only lifted in 2000.
While the US insisted during the era of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” that LGBT+ service members “would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order, discipline and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability”, history tells a very different story.
The Sacred Band of Thebes was formed in Ancient Greece by a general named Gorgidas in 378 BC. In forming the 300-strong army, Gorgidas took an unusual approach; he personally chose each member based on merit and ability, rather than social status, and only selected gay couples. What at first seems like a strange decision makes perfect sense when explained by Plato.
“Even just a few such men, fighting side by side, could conquer practically the entire human race,” he theorized. “For surely the last person a lover could bear to see him abandoning his post or surrendering his weapons would be his boyfriend—he would sooner die many times over!”