troops to rise against the occupying legions in A.D. 61, told them that the Romans were “men who bathe in warm water, eat artificial dainties, drink unmixed wine, anoint themselves with myrrh, and sleep on soft couches with boys for bedfellows.” We British have, most of us, overcome our aversion to warm water and soft couches, but a recent survey in Britain revealed strong public resistance to further encroachments on majority culture by homosexuals. (And in fact, Roman respectability also excluded homosexuality: Julius Caesar had a passionate attachment to a male friend when young, but his minders covered it up when he went into politics.) The notion that the ancient world was a freewheeling paradise of liberated gayness until those “mean-spirited” Christians stomped on it is nonsense. Even the Ancient Greeks scorned the man who “played the woman’s part.” Social disapproval of homosexuality plainly has more to it than just a strict reading of Leviticus.
Dr. Laura traffics in something that is, from the point of view of organizations like GLAAD, far worse than disapproval.
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