The no man's land of queer medieval art may be considerably richer than is generally recognized. In terms of coverage alone, the examples cited here embrace several media, extend from one end of the Middle Ages to the other, and cover a broad geographic area.

The scholarship suggests, further, that notions of sexual identity prevalent today had limited relevance a thousand years ago; more important was the idea that sexual behavior outside marriage and procreation violated a moral principle, although the principle in question varied widely, allowing medieval artists to link same-sex sexual acts to idolatry, heresy, greed, and the like.

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Given this diversity, the depiction of homosexuality never hardened into a formula: hyenas, kissing women, copulating men, sufferers in Hell, and possibly chess-players represent many different ways of evoking the sin. Well-known themes such as Ganymede and Zeus also accommodated various readings according to the degree, or absence, of Christian allegory.

Much work remains to be done. Early medieval art, secular art, lesbianism, patronage, and reception are areas in particular need of study. The gradual opening of modern society to homosexuality, however, has also opened a window onto medieval art that previous generations had shut tight. As scholarship has come out of the closet, a new way of looking at the past has become possible.

Perhaps no other book has been more influential--for better or worse--in determining the construction of gay and lesbian identity in the modern world, as well as social attitudes toward homosexuality, than the Bible.

The Greco-Roman myths concerning same-sex love have been of crucial importance to the Western gay and lesbian literary heritage, both as texts and as icons.

Although it occasionally celebrates homosocial bonding, surviving medieval English literature is condemnatory of homosexual behavior.

Although historical sources are comparatively scanty, they do indicate that homosexual behavior occurred throughout the period, and they give insight into its forms and the varying attitudes toward it.

Natural law--the reading into nature laws that are not merely descriptive, but prescriptive--actually depends on circular reasoning; it discovers in nature what its adherents already believe is the intention of the Christian God.

Historically, the Roman Catholic Church may be the institution most responsible for the suffering of individuals involved in same-sex sexual relationships.

Since antiquity Ganymede, the beautiful Phrygian youth abducted by Jupiter, has served as an artistic expression for homosexuality.

In the Divine Comedy Dante treats male homosexuality first as violence against God and then more sympathetically as merely one of the kinds of love.