Bruce Holsinger

About the author: Bruce Holsinger is a writer who specializes in sexuality and cultural politics.

John Boswell's book Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe gives dozens of examples of church ceremonies from the early Christian era that recognized permanent, romantic, same-sex relationships. The terms "brother," "sister," and "friend," used to describe the new relationships formed by these ceremonies, are equivalents of the modern-day words "lover" or "partner." Same-sex unions in Greco-Roman society were considered to be on an almost equal footing with heterosexual marriages. Criticism of Boswell's book is biased and uninformed.

Gay marriage didn't play in Peoria. On June 11, 1993, the Journal-Star of Peoria, Illinois, became one of at least three dailies to announce a temporary ban on Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury strip because of the recently out Mark Slackmeyer's...