matthewgallaway:

Remember that thing Choire posted yesterday about how Dustin Lance Black doesn’t believe men had sex with each other before like 1940 or something? It’s worth noting that, sadly, Dustin Lance Black is far from the only person to believe this, and when you read about the 19th century (and earlier), you’ll find all sorts of bullshit about how men (Herman Melville, Henry James, and Abraham Lincoln are obv examples) weren’t really fucking other men but just enjoyed “homosocial” relaishes in which they slept in the same bed and wrote exceedingly affectionate letters to each other but refrained from doing anything more than offering each other verbal sweet nothings and at most a sincere bro hug and so forth. Anyway, my point is that we should think about 100 years from now and (assuming society still exists) pretend that we are alive at that point, and also pretend that we are being asked the same question, namely whether men were having sex with each other 100 years ago (meaning right now), which of course because of the digital archive we are creating at this second (via all the porn we look at on tumblr) is a question that would be met with nothing but LOLz at the idiocy of even asking it, which stands to reason that the same question being asked now should also be met with LOLz with regard to men (and women obv) 100 (or 1000) years ago, despite the fact that we don’t have a digital archive of that period. This rule also applies geographically, meaning that wherever you have people — from the remotest village to the most densely populated city — some percentage of them are going to be having non-heterosexual relations (or at least want to, very badly). I’m a nun and I speak the truth. 

— A Garden Nun