Loose Lips	Loose Lips Archive

In Graham Robb's fascinating study of homosexuality in the 19th century, Strangers, he discusses the persistent idea that homosexual activities-- by virtue of their unnaturalness-- cause disease. He gives an amusing list of the various maladies thought to result from homosexuality.

For example, an anonymous 1866 memoir claims that Lord Byron consulted a doctor in Greece about his lover's problem with "a ragged fundament, arising from the frequent distension of the podex in antiphysical concubinage." Podex is a Latin word for "anus," and fundament is somewhat archaic English for "backside." Antiphysical is a synonym for "unnatural" and concubinage means "having a sexual relationship without marriage." So translated into plain English, the complaint seems to be that Byron's boy-toy got hemorrhoids from being fucked too much.

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Robb also mentions a disease called crystalline, also sometimes called Ganymede's syphilis, which was supposed to be caused by sodomy. It's not now clear exactly what this disease is, but given the list of symptoms, genital herpes is a reasonable guess.

Gay men were also stereotyped as having paresis, which is the name for the dementia and paralysis that come with late-stage syphilis, and one prominent meeting place for gay men in New York City was often called Paresis Hall.

Lesbians were not exempt from medical theories. The influential medical writer Samuel Tissot wrote in 1758 that "Sapphism" resulted in cancers in the womb caused by the "frictions which are far from natural," and his work continued to be influential for more than a century.

When we read through this list with a modern eye, we see a an odd combination of pure fantasy mixed with bona fide diseases. But working out the cause-and-effect relationship between disease and sexual behavior is a complicated matter.

Modern medicine tells us that anal sex does not cause hemorrhoids which are now thought to be mostly related to diet, childbirth, and heavy lifting. It can't be denied, however, that painful hemorrhoids are likely to shut down the buttsex playroom.

Certainly herpes and syphilis are sexually transmitted diseases, but are associated with both heterosexual and homosexual intercourse. There's nothing inherent about sex between men that makes transmission of one of these diseases more likely. That said, it is true that there have been recent outbreaks of syphilis among gay men in some cities, but here the risk factor is the number of sexual partners-- not the gender of the sexual partners.

The relationship between lesbianism and reproductive health is a complicated one, and researchers are still trying to disentangle the correlations here. It now appears that lesbianism reduces the prevalence of many diseases-- HIV, herpes, cervical cancer-- while increasing the risk for some other diseases, notably breast cancer.

Medical research hasn't definitely answered the question of why this correlation should exist. Some part of it may be attributable to poorer medical care for lesbians-- due to inability to afford care, reluctance to visit a doctor, or other causes. Another hypothesis is that childbirth reduces the risk of breast cancer, and since lesbians have fewer children on average than heterosexual women, they are at an increased risk. But whatever the cause of the statistical correlation between lesbians and breast cancer, we can be pretty sure that it is not due to unnatural frictions!

From a modern perspective, it's easy to dismiss 19th century associations between homosexuality and disease as mere prejudice. That dismissal would be largely correct-- the medical authorities of the time didn't know what they were talking about, and their ideas about causation have been disproved.

On the other hand, it would foolish for us not to think carefully about the relationship between our sexualities and our health. There is nothing inherently unhealthy or unnatural about sex between two men or two women. But we live different lives from our heterosexual friends and neighbors. Some of these differences may impact our health.

The gay community has rightly emphasized the importance of coming out. It is one of the most beneficial things we can do for psychological health. It's time for our community to do a better job of promoting the benefits of regular medical care and talking frankly about the risks associated with tobacco, alcohol, other drugs, and unsafe sex.