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Gay Unions Sanctioned in Medieval Europe [Smells Like BS!!]
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070827/sc_livescience/gayunionssanctionedinmedievaleurope ^

Posted on 08/27/2007 1:22:56 PM PDT by Hi Heels

Gay Unions Sanctioned in Medieval Europe Jeanna Bryner LiveScience Staff Writer LiveScience.com Mon Aug 27, 12:00 PM ET

Civil unions between male couples existed around 600 years ago in medieval Europe, a historian now says.

Historical evidence, including legal documents and gravesites, can be interpreted as supporting the prevalence of homosexual relationships hundreds of years ago, said Allan Tulchin of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.

If accurate, the results indicate socially sanctioned same-sex unions are nothing new, nor were they taboo in the past.

“Western family structures have been much more varied than many people today seem to realize," Tulchin writes in the September issue of the Journal of Modern History. "And Western legal systems have in the past made provisions for a variety of household structures.”

For example, he found legal contracts from late medieval France that referred to the term "affrèrement," roughly translated as brotherment. Similar contracts existed elsewhere in Mediterranean Europe, Tulchin said.

In the contract, the "brothers" pledged to live together sharing "un pain, un vin, et une bourse," (that's French for one bread, one wine and one purse). The "one purse" referred to the idea that all of the couple's goods became joint property. Like marriage contracts, the "brotherments" had to be sworn before a notary and witnesses, Tulchin explained.

The same type of legal contract of the time also could provide the foundation for a variety of non-nuclear households, including arrangements in which two or more biological brothers inherited the family home from their parents and would continue to live together, Tulchin said.

But non-relatives also used the contracts. In cases that involved single, unrelated men, Tulchin argues, these contracts provide “considerable evidence that the affrèrés were using affrèrements to formalize same-sex loving relationships."

The ins-and-outs of the medieval relationships are tricky at best to figure out.

"I suspect that some of these relationships were sexual, while others may not have been," Tulchin said. "It is impossible to prove either way and probably also somewhat irrelevant to understanding their way of thinking. They loved each other, and the community accepted that.”

The Sex Quiz: Myths, Taboos and Bizarre Facts 10 Things You Didn't Know About You A Brief History of Human Sex Original Story: Gay Unions Sanctioned in Medieval Europe

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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bigotry; homophobes; homosexualagenda; leftreality; propaganda; revisionisthistory
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Okee doke. Show of hands....how many think Allan Tulchin of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania is gay and a member of a brotherment?
1 posted on 08/27/2007 1:22:57 PM PDT by Hi Heels
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To: Hi Heels

Shouldn’t this be a BARF!!! alert?

Meadow Muffin


2 posted on 08/27/2007 1:24:25 PM PDT by rwgal
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To: Hi Heels

Where’s the “I smell BS” graphic?


3 posted on 08/27/2007 1:24:53 PM PDT by Pyro7480 ("Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, esto mihi Jesus" -St. Ralph Sherwin's last words at Tyburn)
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To: Hi Heels

I have to chuckle when Longshanks gives his son’s boyfriend the heave-ho in Brave Heart. Guess Edward I didn’t endorse Same Sex Unions.


4 posted on 08/27/2007 1:25:21 PM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: Hi Heels

People was so stupid back then.


5 posted on 08/27/2007 1:25:51 PM PDT by bmwcyle (BOMB, BOMB, BOMB,.......BOMB, BOMB IRAN)
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To: Hi Heels

A considerably more logical explanation is that, in a society structured by kin-groups, those without relatives did what they could to invent artificial kindred.


6 posted on 08/27/2007 1:25:59 PM PDT by Sherman Logan (Scratch a liberal, find a dhimmi)
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To: Hi Heels
In the contract, the "brothers" pledged to live together sharing "un pain, un vin, et une bourse...."

Among other things ...

7 posted on 08/27/2007 1:26:06 PM PDT by catpuppy
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To: Hi Heels
A little internet research shows that (via the Amazon profile for Allan A. Tulchin, PhD that teaches at Shippensburg University)

COUPLE: Allan Tulchin and Judy Miller 
WEDDING DATE: 1/14/2007 
SHIPPING ADDRESS: Judy Miller & Allan Tulchin - Takoma Park, MD 

8 posted on 08/27/2007 1:26:08 PM PDT by Lazamataz
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To: massgopguy

Neither did Edward II’s wife. She had him murdered in the traditional way for homosexuals. A red hot poker up the rectum.


9 posted on 08/27/2007 1:27:38 PM PDT by CholeraJoe ("Is the lion burning?")
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To: Hi Heels

Makes the phrase “I’m about to get medieval on your *$$” take on a whole new meaning.


10 posted on 08/27/2007 1:28:04 PM PDT by VRWCmember (Fred Thompson 2008! Taking America Back for Conservatives!)
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To: Hi Heels
"I suspect that some of these relationships were sexual, while others may not have been," Tulchin said. "It is impossible to prove either way . . . "

In other words, there is not a shred of evidence for his claims whatsoever.

11 posted on 08/27/2007 1:28:08 PM PDT by wideawake (Why is it that so many self-proclaimed "Constitutionalists" know so little about the Constitution?)
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To: Hi Heels

1) Nothing says they were homosexual relationships.

2) It’s still not marriage, which is what the homo lobby wants.


12 posted on 08/27/2007 1:28:18 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: Hi Heels

Wasn’t it known as the Dark Ages?,


13 posted on 08/27/2007 1:28:38 PM PDT by Rodm (Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings)
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To: Sherman Logan
A considerably more logical explanation is that, in a society structured by kin-groups, those without relatives did what they could to invent artificial kindred.

Bingo.

14 posted on 08/27/2007 1:29:08 PM PDT by wideawake (Why is it that so many self-proclaimed "Constitutionalists" know so little about the Constitution?)
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To: Hi Heels
I do think it is worth noting that the stated purpose of an affrèrement was OTHER than to allow "same sex marriage". That it may have been abused in such a way should come as no surprise, since other perfectly legitimate enterprises are similarly abused.

This actually gets to the heart of the bias shown in allowing 'domestic partnerships' only for same-sex pairs who have sex with each other. Why can't platonic friends form such a partnership? Apparently, folks in the Middle Ages would have agreed.
15 posted on 08/27/2007 1:29:48 PM PDT by beezdotcom
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To: Hi Heels
Okee doke. Show of hands....how many think Allan Tulchin of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania is gay


16 posted on 08/27/2007 1:31:05 PM PDT by SIDENET (More fun than a beer left in the freezer.)
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To: Hi Heels
"a historian now says."

Riiiiiiight.

These "historians" are always "discovering" things out of whole cloth.

In the future, we'll all be dead and homosexual.
17 posted on 08/27/2007 1:33:36 PM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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To: Pyro7480

18 posted on 08/27/2007 1:36:08 PM PDT by Califreak (Go Hunter!)
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To: beezdotcom

Good points.


19 posted on 08/27/2007 1:36:20 PM PDT by Sherman Logan (Scratch a liberal, find a dhimmi)
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To: Hi Heels

Homosexual couples were often tied to the same stake before being burned.


20 posted on 08/27/2007 1:36:25 PM PDT by Macrinus
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