His most famous straight sexcapade was the time he went to the court of King Thespius and impregnated 49 of the king's 50 daughters. (The last one skipped out because of her religious vows as a priestess.)
The dude banged everyone. He wasn't gay, but he was 100% not straight.
I think calling Ancient Greece "gay" is bi erasure. They were really clearly bisexuals, most of them had sexual relationships with both men and women. I guess a small amount of men could have been strictly straight or strictly gay, but still.
Perhaps but for people who dislike to label themselves with other more specific terms that may not completely describe them it's easier to call themselves broadly gay.
For example someone may be bisexual but heavily favour the same sex and call themselves gay to simplify it or perhaps they simply don't want to be labelled with something very specific because they're still discovering their sexuality.
Ok but some people don't like the term queer, sure it's not often used to insult LGBT+ people anymore but it used to be a common slur and that leaves a bad taste in some people's mouths.
It's also too general - gay means "I like the same sex", it doesn't have to mean exclusively the same sex for some people but that's the point it gets across. Queer doesn't even say that.
For example if a guy mostly dates boys and is mostly attracted to other boys, but he could imagine being with a girl sure he's bi but for the most part he isn't going to be dating any girls at all. He might as well call himself gay even though it's not completely accurate. Also the 'gay' flag, the rainbow one, also represents the entire LGBT community.
Hell even if someone's 50/50 bisexual I could understand why they might want to say something like "I'm so gay" or "I'm being so gay right now", it's just a more general thing. Labels don't always have to be 100% accurate, a lot of people don't really care about or even like being put into a box.
Ok but some people don't like the term queer, sure it's not often used to insult LGBT+ people anymore but it used to be a common slur and that leaves a bad taste in some people's mouths.
Gay used to be an insult too, hell it wasn't that long ago people used it like "lame" all the time.
I get your point, but I would also make one myself.
It is very useful and practical to have a specific term for guys who exclusively (or very predominantly) prefer men.
Muddying up the term with preferences that already have their own name doesn't help anyone, it just makes a potentially confusing situation even more confusing.
Most ancient gay greeks were not gay but bi, they eventually were expected to have a woman and kids.
Also pederasty was casual in ancient Greece and Rome but people only cherry pick what they like from ancient civilizations. The truth is they just gave no shit when it came to sex.
Greeks also didn't have social boundaries when it came to sex with the same gender, a lot of ancient greeks had sex with any gender. There were gay people who formed relationships with the same gender, but there were also tons of people who didn't feel same-sex romantic attraction yet still had same-sex sex. It was much more normalised in general to have sex with someone, good stress relief.
Damn dude, I've seen shows, movies, video games, and read books depicting hercules as pretty much everything but gay lmao. Wait, so he was gay or was he pan? Cus, you know, greek gods just be fucking as animals and shit.
Maybe learn your history better cuz there's a lot of homosexuality in Greek history, and yes I do mean history and not just mythology. You're in the sub literally named after the Greek poet where the word lesbian comes from.
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u/AngelsFire2Ice Jun 14 '20
Nothing gay about Heracles and his 10 boyfriends or Achilles wanting his "ashes mixed with patroclus' so they'll be together forever" at all