“Civil unions between male couples existed around 600 years ago in medieval Europe, a historian now says.” This just in from [1] Live Science, posted Auust 27.  The Live Science article is sharing news of the publication of a schlarly paper in the Journal of Modern History.

The question I have here is whether author Allan Tulchin of Shippensburg University knows of the work of the late Dr. John Boswell, or is dependent upon his work, Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe [New, York,Villard Books, 1994].   The “making of brothers” as Boswell called it, or “affrèrement” as Tulchin gives the French, is not exactly news.  Boswell found evidence of same-sex blessing ceremonies, not in burial vaults, but in liturgical manuals and altar missals used for Christian services, from as early as the 4th century to as late as the 14th century, and from Paris in the west to as far east as Jerusalem.

Boswell, who was an amazing scholar, spoke here in West Hollywood more than 20 years ago before he published his complete findings.  I was in the audience.  I took notes, came home and transcribed them carefully.  This was news then, and I lapped up every detail I could jot. 

If the Live Science report is correct, Dr. Tulchin’s contribution will add to this scholarly work, and make it more comfortable for sentient beings to  accept the idea that gay couples have been around for a very long time.  Not all human beings are intellectually honest, of course, and they don’t want to know.  Boswell related, in the same presentation, that (the late) Rev. Jerry Falwell was asked what he thought of Boswell’s ground-breaking research published by the University of Chicago in 1980, Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century.  Falwell ducked answering by saying he was not aware of the book.  Dr. Boswell dryly remarked, “That’s very interesting, because I personally mailed him a copy.”

The “affrèrement” or making of brothers apparently was some kind of ritualized and recognized act in which two men swore fidelity to one another.  Some anthropologists discount the homosexual aspect of this because they have documented brotherhood ceremonies in primitive cultures around the world.   Perhaps it is another sign that much of human sexuality is ambiguous in meaning.  Sexual expression (acts) is always open to interpretation even within the sanctity of each marriage bed.

At what point does a brotherly relationship between two un-related males become a lover relationship?  Is brotherhood a euphemism — or can it be in some situations and not in others?  Would gay brothers tell anthropologists precisely what their relationship means to each other? 

Over the centuries gay people have had to be very creative to find ways not only to express their love and sensuality, but also to artfully conceal it from those who simply do not wish to know about it, or cannot accept it.

But I may have to wait to get my questions answered.  The Journal of Modern History is a quarterly, subscription-only scholarly journal.  The September 2007 issue is not yet available on their [2] web site (even though this story is all over the net).  Dr. Tulchin is listed as Assistant Professor in the History/ Philosophy Department on the website for [3] Shippensburg University.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles