9781422275269

You’ll also notice, however, that some patterns emerge. One of the most prevalent patterns that emerges is the impact that European colonization of areas across the planet had upon the world’s attitudes toward LGBTQ people. From the 1400s through the 1900s, European countries conquered and settled in areas all around the world. Sometimes they did this to make trade more possible with those regions, bringing home greater wealth. Sometimes it was just for the land itself. Sometimes it was for the prestige of ruling as many people as possible. The British were fond of saying that “the sun never sets on the British Empire,” meaning that they ruled so many different areas of the world that the sun was always shining on land they controlled. But the European powers were not satisfied in just ruling people all over the world. Because the Christian nations believed that people who were not Christian were doomed to eternal hellfire if they did not convert, they believed they were saving the souls of the people of the world by bringing them their religion. Christianity at the time was especially hostile to LGBTQ people. Much of Britain’s colonial period, for example, was within what is called the Victorian Era, an especially conservative period in British history in which very strict social expectations were enforced upon all subjects of the empire. This imperialism greatly affected perceptions of LGBTQ people all over the world. Wherever the Europeans went, the laws they imposed upon the natives brought them in line with European culture, including laws about LGBTQ people. Laws forbidding male homosexuality were particularly specific, but gender non-conformity was condemned as well. Unfortunately, this means that a lot of the sexual and gender diversity that existed in these societies was suppressed. Some evidence of what was there is left, but much is lost. We can’t know exactly what many of these cultures’ attitudes were before colonization—maybe some of them already had a bias against

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LGBTQWithout Borders • International Life