Reddit reviews Homophobia

> If you go back 50-100 years in history of any modern society that is tolerant of homosexuals today, you'd probably find the very same attitude that our countries share now.

Yes and no.

You have to go back a bit FURTHER than 50 to 100 years.

Part of the problem is that the concept of a simplistic hetero/homo dichotmy is an entirely MODERN one, even the term "homosexual" was not really coined until the mid 1800's and then chiefly promoted by psychologists of the time (notably Austrian Richard von Krafft-Ebing) who created both the term and definition/dichotomy as a category of "mental illness".

Prior to that, historically speaking, people were not defined as having a "sexual orientation", and rather the terms used merely referenced the ACTIONS of people. So one was a "sodomizer" if one engaged in "sodomy" (much as someone who engaged in "theft" was seen as and called a "thief") but generally speaking, it wasn't seen as some inborn definition of any distinct category of persons -- and so there wasn't really any "fear" over things like being a "latent homosexual" -- such a phrase wouldn't even have made any sense at all to someone in say the 1700's or earlier.

An entire (thick, exhaustively researched & references) BOOK has been written about the modern "invention" of homosexuality, and how psychology essentially created the modern "homophobia" meme which was then (more than somewhat ironically) adopted/integrated by various religious groups (despite them often claiming to be anti-psychology).

Perhaps (for Americans anyway) the most notable example of this is "Dr." James Dobson and his "Focus on the Family" which while ostensibly a "ministry" is really nothing of the kind, as Dobson had essentially ZERO ecclesiastical training, and instead is a "Dr." of psychology -- and he started his organization with the EXPRESS purpose of promoting (and literally SELLING) his "psychology" (i.e the psychology world-view of circa 1950's that he himself learned and adopted in college -- one of the cornerstones of which was the weird Freudian psycho-sexual view of the world, and especially the concept that homosexuality was a "mental illness/disease") -- he has been, unfortunately, largely successful (both in pushing his memes as well as profiting from them). The end result is that much of modern "evangelical Christianity" in America is based on the bullshit doctrines and beliefs of people like Sigmund Freud (atheist, cocaine addict, and person with a host of deeply problematic mental problems all his own -- dude was a real freak); and it is largely where the whole "fix them via therapy" nonsense comes from.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Homophobia-Byrne-Fone/dp/0312420307/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463861465&sr=1-1&keywords=homophobia

>Fone reveals how and why same-sex desire has long been the object of legal, social, religious, and political persecution.

From 2001.

Homophobia: A History

"Delving into literary sources as diverse as Greek philosophy, Elizabethan poetry, the Bible, and the Victorian novel, as well as historical texts and propaganda ranging from the French Revolution to the Moral Majority to the transcripts of current TV talk shows, Fone reveals how and why same-sex desire has long been the object of legal, social, religious, and political persecution."