Series of Articles

This is a collection of article series united by a common theme: from antiquity and folklore to individuals and case studies on the history of LGBT in various cultures.

🇷🇺 LGBT History of Russia

Key themes in the history, literature, and everyday life of LGBT people in Russia: from medieval ideas to the realities of the imperial era of the 18th–19th centuries, including biographical examples and documentary evidence from historical sources.

1. Homosexuality in Ancient and Medieval Russia
2. A Cross-Dressing Epic Hero: the Russian Folk Epic of Mikhaylo Potyk, Where He Disguises Himself as a Woman
3. The Homosexuality of Russian Tsars: Vasily III and Ivan IV “the Terrible
4. Uncensored Russian Folklore: Highlights from Afanasyev’s “Russian Secret Tales
5. Homosexuality in the 18th-Century Russian Empire — Europe-Imported Homophobic Laws and How They Were Enforced
6. Peter the Great’s Sexuality: Wives, Mistresses, Men, and His Connection to Menshikov
7. Russian Empress Anna Leopoldovna and the Maid of Honour Juliana: Possibly the First Documented Lesbian Relationship in Russian History
8. Grigory Teplov and the Sodomy Case in 18th-Century Russia
9. Russian Poet Ivan Dmitriev, Boy Favourites, and Same-Sex Desire His the Fables ‘The Two Doves’ and ‘The Two Friends’
10. The Diary of the Moscow Bisexual Merchant Pyotr Medvedev in the 1860s
11. Maslenitsa Effigy: The “Man in Women’s Clothes” of Russia’s Pre-Lent Carnival
12. Sergei Romanov: A Homosexual Member of the Imperial Family
13. Andrey Avinoff: A Russian Émigré Artist, Gay Man, and Scientist

🙏 Queer Theology of the Old Testament

This series explores topics related to perceptions of God’s gender and ideas about gender in the Old Testament from the perspective of queer theology—a field that examines religion through an LGBT lens.

1. What Gender Is God in the Old Testament?
2. Adam Before Eve: Male or Androgynous? Theological Debates From the Church Fathers to the Present Day
3. A Queer Theological Reading of Leviticus 18:22: “Do Not Lie With A Man As With A Woman”

🦴 Prehistoric LGBT History

Evidence of sexuality and homoerotic relationships in prehistoric cultures: archaeological finds, ancient imagery, and possible ways to interpret them.

1. Homosexuality Among Neanderthals
2. The First Homoerotic Image in History — The Addaura Cave Rock Engravings
3. A Prehistoric Double Phallus From the Enfer Gorge
4. A Homosexual Scene in Norway’s Prehistoric Art: The Bardal Petroglyphs
5. A 4,600-Year-Old Burial of a “Third-Gender” Person: What We Know and What Is Disputed

🏺 LGBT History of Ancient Egypt

Mythology, written sources, and visual art of Ancient Egypt in which motifs of same-sex desire appear—from conflicts between gods to personal relationships and stories of famous same-sex couples.

1. A Queer Lexicon of Ancient Egypt
2. Divine Homosexuality in the Ancient Egyptian Myth of Horus and Seth
3. Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum: The First Same-Sex Couple in History
4. A Homoerotic Plot in Ancient Egyptian Literature: Pharaoh Pepi II Neferkare and General Sasenet
5. Idet and Ruiu: Lesbian Lovers in Ancient Egypt?
6. A Possible Scene of Same-Sex Intercourse from Ancient Egypt — The Love Ostracon
7. Goddess Nephthys — a lesbian?

🇹🇷 LGBT History of Turkey

Ottoman and Turkish contexts: from poetry with homoerotic motifs in classical literature to modern debates about key figures in national history.

1. The Homosexuality Of Sultan Mehmed II
2. Homoerotic Themes in Taşlıcalı Yahya Bey’s Ottoman Poem “Shah and the Beggar”
3. Was Atatürk Gay or Bisexual?