Harry Tanner says that, when he was a teenager, he thought he “was going to hell.”

For years, he’d been attracted to men, and he prayed that it would stop. He asked for help from a lay minister, who offered Tanner websites meant to repress his urges, but they weren’t a panacea. It wasn’t until he went to college that he found the answers he needed and “stopped fearing God’s retribution.” 

Being Gay wasn’t a sin. Not ever, but he “still wanted to know why Western culture believed it was for so long.” Says Tanner, “All is not what it seems.”

Many believe that, historically, older men were sexual “mentors” for teenage boys, but Tanner says that in ancient Greece and Rome, same-sex relationships were common between male partners of equal age and between differently-aged pairs, both. Clarity comes by understanding relationships between husbands and wives then, and careful translation of the word “boy,” to show that age wasn’t a factor, but superiority and inferiority were.

In ancient Athens, Queer love was considered “noble,” but after the Persians sacked Athens, sex between men instead became an acceptable act of aggression aimed at conquered enemies. Confoundingly, raping a male prisoner was encouraged, but “Gay men became symbols of a depraved lack of self-control and abstinence.”

Later, Greeks believed that men could turn into women “if they weren’t sufficiently virile.” Biblical interpretations point to more conflict; Leviticus specifically bans Queer sex, but “the Sumerians actively encouraged it.” The Egyptians hated it, but “there are sporadic clues that same-sex partners lived together in ancient Egypt.” 

If ancient history is not your thing, then The Queer Thing About Sin won’t be either. But just know that if you skip this book, you’re missing out on the kind of excitement you get from reading mythology — but what’s here is true, and a much wider view than mere folklore. 

Tanner invites readers to go deep inside philosophy, religion, and ancient culture, but the information he brings is not dry. There are major battles brought to life here, vanquished enemies, and death — but also love, acceptance, and even encouragement that the citizens of yore in many societies embraced and enjoyed. Tanner explains carefully how religious credo tied in with homosexuality (or didn’t), and he brings readers up to speed through recent times.

While this is not a breezy vacation read or a curl-up-with-a-blanket kind of book, The Queer Thing About Sin is absolutely worth spending time with.