Homophobia

A pioneering scholar of gay and lesbian studies presents an illuminating history of homophobia from ancient Athens to the halls of Congress. In this tour de force of historical and literary research, Byrne Fone, professor emeritus at the City University of New York, chronicles the evolution of homophobia through the centuries. 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. This groundbreaking work combines "a masterful command of history [with] an explosive set of assertions that fly against the conventional view of not just homophobes but of gay people themselves" (Michael Alvear, Salon).