Reply #50: Friendship vs lovers, an issue too [View All]

[Nikia]

I read the website Celebratefriendship.com. It was written by a gay man, but he states that some relationships that modern Westerners interpret as homosexual are frienship type relationships that don't involve sex even if they involve affectionate behavior and other things which Modern American usually only do in sexual relationships.
For example, two men might live together, hug, kiss, and swear their devotion to one another and have a pseudo kinship relationship but not have sex with each but their wives.
In many cultures, "best same sex friend" is a serious relationship between both people and recognized by the community. A relationship like this in modern America might be interpreted as homosexual but it is usually not.
I am not saying that there are not gay people. I have gay friends which I am sure are gay. We should not impose our cultural understanding of relationships onto other cultures though.
To answer the orignal question, as stated before, several American Indian tribes did have men and women who functioned as the opposite gender in their society and married people of the same sex. These people often were assumed to have spiritual gifts since they were considered both male and female.