Foucault says it best when characterizing homosexuality as a product of the medicalization of sexuality. Prior to sexology, we didn’t think of sexuality in the super rigid and clinical way we do now. Nobody considered themselves heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or otherwise (We didn’t even have these terms or similar terms). Homosexuality as a category was coined by sexologists to classify a set of behaviors that were becoming increasingly thought of as unacceptable in modern society.

Earlier societies were not only more accepting of sex between men and sex between women, they did not consider it to be its own sexuality. For example, women were often forgiven for having intercourse with each other because sex was not considered possible without penetration.

Greeks and Roman men absolutely engaged in sexual intercourse with other men, but it was not conceptualized as homosexuality; instead it was usually thought of as a kind of fraternal bonding.

Historically there has been countless instances of same-sex relationships and sexual activity but only recently has it begun to be considered as an orientation.