Sexual Inversion

After reading Havelock Ellis I realized many things regarding homosexuality. It is important to note that Ellis wrote this article in 1933, meaning his perceptions and mindset could differ from ours today. I found his writing to be very factual which kept me entertained. For example, Ellis states "This was so even among the ancient civilizations on which our own is founded. It was known to the Assyrians, and the Egyptians, nearly four thousand years about, attributed pederasty to their gods Horus and Set" (3) Once again like Jonathan Ned Katz's article Ellis' article references the historical past of LGBT throughout the world. I found it interesting that Michelangelo, one of the most famous artists from the Renaissance and many other celebrate men were either "inverted" or possessed homosexual ideas. I just find it hard to believe that we live in such a hateful, cruel, anti LGBT society when previous civilizations had a LGBT community. Another point I that caught my attention was when Ellis said "After the coming of Christianity it still held its ground, but it fell into disrepute..." (3). When talking about religion and LGBT together things can get tricky. We could spend numerous class periods discussing the impact of  religion on LGBT people and vice versa. Another point where Ellis brings up religion is when he says "England and the United States are probably the chief countries in which the ancient ecclesiastical jurisdiction against homosexuality still retains an influence" (17). Both religion and LGBT are sensitive subjects to discuss since they are both personal topics, but I hope in class we will get a change to discuss theses two topics relationship more in-depth.