historytea:

“The pervasive reluctance to concede even latent desire between two men sets up serious obstacles to our understanding of the place of sexuality in American history. Until recently historians have been hampered by three intellectual barriers: a misconception about the prevalence of same-sex eroticism, a reluctance to abaondon restrictive labels such as ‘homosexuality’ and ‘heterosexuality’, and an inability to move beyond negative preconceptions about ‘the gay lifestyle’ toward a more nuanced understanding of human sexual behavior. Much of the current discussion of nineteenth-century ‘romantic friendships’ therefore has been based on circular logic. Historians begin with the assumption that homosexual activity is rare, aberrant behavior. They then demonstrate that passionate attachments between American male friends were extremely common–so common that they label them ‘normal’. But these normal, common attachments cannot be assumed to include at times actual homosexual activity. Why? because homosexual activity is rare, aberrant behavior.”

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Male-Male Intimacy in Early America, William Benemann

In which, William Benemann breaks down the logic of historians who claim homosexuality was rare or not there and then turns it all on it’s head.