Homosexuality and the Western Frontier

Homosexuality and the Western Frontier

The idea or myths portrayed by various sources of the American Western Frontier are often blatant falsehoods or neglectful too in multiple aspects. A particular issue that does not quit fit into the narrow exceptional American framework provided by what has been argued about for decades in the Turner thesis is the concept of homosexuality along the rugged and rough Western Frontier. Though the historical data and documentation are controversial and minimal at best, the door is opening for a greater understanding of homosexuality and the Western Frontier.

First and foremost, the concept of homosexuality needs to be addressed. What we have come to know “homosexuality” as today was not always the case. Every generation, decade, and century have added to the evolvement (for better or worse). Both ends of the spectrum in regards to gay or homosexual activities have been pursued by societies, states, and churches with one side who “invested homosexuality with ritual significance” and the other who viewed or charged it as “the wickedest of crimes” [1]. The United States and specifically the Western Frontier was far removed from their position today as the Gay Liberation Movement has expanded long overdue examinations of what homosexuality is and how societies should accept rather than ridicule or ignore. The works of the movement rose out of what is known as the “degeneracy theory” that was commonly spread along the western frontier and eventually into “new theories of causation and strategies of treatment” that still exist and linger today [1]. The human race loves to categorize identities and sexual orientation without understanding the consequences that the categorization will have. The Western Frontier was no exception to this rule, but are by no means today the complete opposite as they are more of an evolving transitional period of understanding the mistakes, biases, and shortcomings of their past on many...