Tales of Times Forgotten: Just How Gay Were the Ancient Greeks Really?

The gist of it is

• Ancient Greek gender identity was more of a "scale" of manliness
• Sexuality was not an identity but a phase
• The roles of penetrator and penetrated were split along the division of adult male and anyone else
• An adult man receiving another was taboo
• Young adult men were expected to court an adolescent lover
• Adolescent men were to make them work for it (but also ultimately accept their role)
• Full adults (late twenties) were to take a wife (usually adolescent girls) and stop pursuing boys

Also noteworthy is that preadolescents were off-limits. "Technically, it's ephebophilia" doesn't make it less fucked up, but it's also a distinction I suspect some of the "it was normal in Ancient Greece" chuds to overlook. Paedophilia wasn't acceptable back then either.

Men who courted other adult men were indeed seen as effeminate though. The post got that part right. But so were adults that failed to move on from their half-man phase of courting boys. I suspect those chuds miss that as well.

All in all, Ancient Greek ideas of sexuality don't neatly map onto modern ones, and they sure weren't progressive.