Turns out the pilgrims had a ton of gay sex
Brokeback Mountain-esque Lewis and Clark would later describe, some men could even marry other men.While this pre-Western gender fluidity was a foreign concept to European visitors, it was not unimpactful on settlers.
The results of this cultural overlap, propelled by that first Thanksgiving, cropped up almost immediately. Over in Merrymount, a Massachusetts Pilgrim settlement, citizens were not just freely socializing with the indigenous Algonquin tribe, but freeing slaves for fun and, oh yeah, hosting Pride celebrations.
Well, sort of. In one description of the settlement’s regular parties, Scarlet Letter scribe Nathaniel Hawthorne cited a “youth in glistening apparel, with a scarf of the rainbow pattern crosswise on his breast. … adorned with pink silk stockings.” During another party, the Merrymount revelers evocatively danced like “Ganymede” and “Zeus,” insinuating that this was a 17th century circuit party.The best part, at least for America’s early dancing queens, was that no one cared too much.
Non-procreative sex, though frowned upon, was usually not considered grounds for imprisonment or even the death penalty. In many cases, it simply resulted in a slap on the wrist, such as was the case for Nicholas Sension, who received a mere fine and public shaming after propositioning countless men between 1642 to 1672 in Connecticut.
