Same-Sex Sexual Orientation the Development

Same-Sex Sexual Orientation

The Development of the Same-Sex Sexual Orientation Movement from the 19th to 20th Century-America

The texts, "A Desired Past," by Leila Rupp, "Improper Bostonians" of the History Project, and "Come Out Fighting" by Chris Bull are examples of collected narratives that probe into the historicity of the same-sex sexual orientation movement from the transition years of 19th to 20th centuries.

The narratives and historical documentation contained in these texts trace the origin and history of same-sex sexual orientation movement. Each text provides a lengthy discussion of the phases through which the movement has developed through the years. Overall, these texts describe the development of the same-sex sexual orientation movement, which has three phases, all of which describe and are delved into the texts enumerated.

In discussing the development of the same-sex sexual orientation movement, this paper takes each text as part of a phase that led to the movement's development. Thus, Rupp's discussion sets the rationale in discussing and illustrating the phenomenon and historicity of the same-sex sexual orientation movement, labeled as the first phase of the movement's development. The second phase is demonstrated by "Improper Bostonians," which chronicles the implicit and eventually, explicit display, of same-sex sexual orientation among Americans (specifically Bostonians). The last phase, correspondingly, demonstrates the successful development and evolution of the concept of same-sex sexual orientation, which in turn strengthened the same-sex sexual orientation movement.

Taking these texts as representatives of the same-sex sexual orientation movement, Rupp's discussion of the movement centered on her exploration of its historicity and documentation in the 18th and 19th centuries. The reason behind her interest is not just triggered by the fact that she herself has a homosexual orientation, but also because Rupp had difficulty trying to understand how homosexuals of the early years have lived their life. Through the persona of her Aunt Leila, Rupp sought to determine how homosexuals led their lives in the early 19th and 20th centuries. The rationale that made up the main discussion of her book are explicated as follows:

tell the story of Aunt Leila because I still don't know if she was a lesbian. For me she evokes all the complexities captured in the term "same-sex love and sexuality." She was a "lady," and a conservative one at that. To the outside world she was a "maiden aunt." I always assumed she would be horrified by the label "lesbian'...It is, first of all, a question of evidence. I don't know anything about Aunt Leila's desire, sexual behavior, or self-conception. But of course we don't know about such things for most people in the past. And that's the problem. The difficulty of locating sources that document same-sex love and sexuality is legendary

The problem of tracing the movement, then, springs from the fact that historians and academicians had difficulty searching for data, information, and other documents that can prove the existence and practice of same-sex sexual orientation from the 18th to 19th centuries. More than just the problem of locating documents that could prove the existence of homosexuality in these early years, Rupp also experienced problems proving the gender differences between male and female homosexuality, since one of the objectives she tried establishing is that homosexuality "in the case of women" tend "to reveal emotional attachments to other women...we often do not know whether the behavior says anything about love or desire."

After Rupp has posed the scholarly question of the origins and historicity of same-sex sexual orientation movement, "Improper Bostonians" chronicles the lives of famous personalities -- both men and women -- who have had "private lives," that is, lives of homosexuals. Detailing the lives of famous American personalities (who are also homosexuals) has helped historians, academicians, and generally, the popular audience, in understanding the nature of homosexuality in the movement's early development. Notably, among the most chronicled lives in the book are those of American artists, which include, among others, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Oscar Wilde, as well as important historical figures such as John Winthrop and Thomas Morton. The dominance of artists in the collection demonstrated how homosexual lives were documented "figuratively" through the literary works of these artists, as historians were faced with problems of unearthing historical documents (i.e., correspondences and photos explicitly showing their sexual preference for a partner).