[Torie]

And the cradle of Western civilization, Greece, had all of those "gay" Spartan warriors. And so it goes. I agree with you that the culture does influence how those inside the edges of the continuum will conduct themselves. That is why I agree with you, that the loosening of the stigma, will probably increase the incidence of homosexual behavior.

[AntiGuv]

The ancient Greeks did not associate homoeroticism with effeminacy. Quite the contrary, they rather clearly considered it essential to normative masculinity (at least, the Spartans did). It has actually been conjectured that homosexuality may have been what led to the demographic collapse of the Spartan population in the 2nd Century BC leading to its decline into irrelevance.

Both the ancient Greeks and Romans were quite hostile to even the slightest expression of effeminacy. The Athenians in particular would exile an adult citizen who took the 'passive' role in homosexual intercourse (the Spartans evidently did not have that issue). The association of the 'active' homosexual role with effeminacy is a quite modern 19th Century innovation.