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Russian and global LGBT history
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Series of Articles

This is a collection of article series united by a common theme: from antiquity and folklore to biographies and case studies on LGBT history in different cultures.

Article series

🇷🇺 LGBT History of Russia

General history

  1. Homosexuality in Ancient and Medieval Russia
  2. The Story of a Medieval Arabic Source in Which the Women of the 'Rus' Were Called the World's First Lesbians
  3. The Homosexuality of Russian Tsars Vasily III and Ivan IV the Terrible
  4. Peter the Great’s Sexuality: Wives, Mistresses, Men, and His Relationship with Menshikov
  5. Homosexuality in the 18th-Century Russian Empire — Homophobic Laws Borrowed From Europe and How They Were Enforced
  6. A History of Kissing Between Men in Russia
  7. Russian Empress Anna Leopoldovna and the Maid of Honour Juliana: Possibly the First Documented Lesbian Relationship in Russian History

Folklore

  1. The Cross-Dressing Bogatyr: A Russian Bylina About Mikhailo Potyk, Who Disguises Himself as a Woman
  2. Uncensored Russian Folklore: Highlights from Afanasyev’s “Russian Secret Tales”
  3. Muzhik-Maslenitsa: A Maslenitsa Figure of a Man Dressed as a Woman

Biographies

  1. Saint Moses the Hungarian – One of the First Queer Figures in Russian History?
  2. Grigory Teplov and the Sodomy Case in 18th-Century Russia
  3. Russian Poet Ivan Dmitriev, Young Favourites, and Same-Sex Desire in the Fables 'The Two Doves' and 'The Two Friends'
  4. Aleksey Apukhtin: Homosexual, Poet, and Friend of Tchaikovsky
  5. The Diary of Pyotr Medvedev, a Bisexual Moscow Merchant, 1854–1863
  6. Sergei Romanov: A Homosexual Member of the Imperial Family
  7. The Possible Homosexuality of Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich of the Romanov Family
  8. Andrey Avinoff: A Russian Émigré Artist, Gay Man, and Scientist
Article series

🇺🇸 LGBT History of the USA

  1. Homoeroticism of the Victorian Era: Male Intimacy in Photographs from the 1850s–1890s from the Herbert Mitchell Collection
  2. The Future President’s Secret Operation: How Franklin Roosevelt Spent a Million Dollars on a Hunt for Gay Men in the Navy
  3. Two Republican Politicians from Georgia and Their Old Photographs in Women’s Clothing
  4. The Story of the 2016 “Twinks for Trump” Photo Shoot
  5. Support for LGBT Rights in the US: PRRI's 2025 50-State Survey
Article series

🌍 LGBT History of Africa

  1. History of Male Homosexuality in Senegal
Article series

🏺 LGBT History of Ancient Rome and the Etruscans

  1. Two Scenes of Sex Between Men in the Etruscan Tomb of the Chariots
Article series

🙏 Queer Theology of Christianity

Introduction

  1. What Is Queer Theology

Old Testament texts

  1. What Gender Is God in the Old Testament?
  2. Adam Before Eve: Male or Androgynous? Theological Debates From the Church Fathers to the Present Day
  3. A Queer Theological Reading of Leviticus 18:22: “Do Not Lie With A Man As With A Woman”
Article series

🦴 Prehistoric LGBT History

  1. Homosexuality Among Neanderthals
  2. A Prehistoric Double Phallus From the Enfer Gorge
  3. The First Homoerotic Image in History — The Addaura Cave Rock Engravings
  4. A Homosexual Scene in Norway’s Prehistoric Art: The Bardal Petroglyphs
  5. A 4,600-Year-Old Burial of a 'Third-Gender' Person: What We Know and What Is Disputed
Article series

🏺 LGBT History of Ancient Egypt

  1. A Queer Lexicon of Ancient Egypt
  2. Divine Homosexuality in the Ancient Egyptian Myth of Horus and Seth
  3. Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum: The First Same-Sex Couple in History?
  4. A Homoerotic Plot in Ancient Egyptian Literature: Pharaoh Pepi II Neferkare and General Sasenet
  5. The Statue of Idet and Ruiu — Lesbians of Ancient Egypt?
  6. A Possible Same-Sex Intercourse Scene from Ancient Egypt – The Erotic Ostracon
  7. Goddess Nephthys – a Lesbian?
Article series

🏛️ LGBT History of Mesopotamia

  1. The Earliest Laws in History Against Same-Sex Relations – Assyria in the Twelfth Century BCE
Article series

🇨🇳 LGBT History of China

  1. How Duke Xian of Jin Sent a Beautiful Youth to Another Ruler to Weaken His Court and Then Conquer His Country
  2. “The Bitten Peach”: Duke Ling of Wei and Mizi Xia as One of the Earliest Same-Sex Court Tales in Chinese History
Article series

🇮🇷 LGBT History of Iran

  1. What the Ancient Greeks Wrote About Homosexuality in Persia – and How Much of It Is True
  2. The Hermitage's 'Amorous Couple': An Iranian Painting with Gender Ambiguity
Article series

🇹🇷 LGBT History of Turkey

  1. The Homosexuality of Sultan Mehmed II
  2. Homoerotic Themes in Taşlıcalı Yahya Bey’s Ottoman Poem “Shah and the Beggar”
  3. Was Atatürk Gay or Bisexual?