During the Middle Ages, Christian morality shaped how people understood their sexuality. The story of Sodom and the punishment of its inhabitants was a common subject of moral teachings and judgments. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a region that absorbed the traditions of Baltic polytheistic rulers, Scandinavian dynasties in the Rus' lands, and the Christian Church, understandings of sexuality remain speculative. Viktsya talks about the difficulties of studying this time period and warns against making hasty conclusions about the identities of the people who lived then.
Articles mentioned:
Bychowski, M. W. "The Necropolitics of Narcissus: Confessions of Transgender Suicide in the Middle Ages." Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality ( Vol. 55, No. 1), 2019. Pp. 207-248.
Handbook of Medieval Sexuality. Ed. by Vern L. Bullough and James A. Bundage. Routledge, 2010.
Kusek R.;Szymański W. "Kings as ‘Queens’—Textual and Visual Homophobic Fabrications of Two Polish Kings: The Curious Cases of Bolesław the Generous and Henry I of Poland." Royal Studies Journal (Vol. 6 No. 2), 2019.
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💚 The publication was produced with support from n-ost and funded by the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) and the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) as part of the Education Agenda on NS-Injustice