There are a lot of folks out there who are very threatened by the idea of two men or two women getting married. Sometimes these people claim that doing so isn't "natural." Often they seem to think that the idea of same-sex marriage is a completely modern one.
This isn't actually accurate. Same-sex unions occurred in medieval Japan and China, among certain Native American tribes, as well as among some tribes in Africa and in Hellenic Greece.
A recent paper by a historian named Allan A. Tulchin discusses yet another culture where same-sex marriage can be found; medieval France. In the paper, Tulchin describes something called an "affrèrement." This was a legal contract for a civil union between two men.
Just something to think about the next time you hear someone mutter that they never had these kinds of issues back in the day!
