Gay men

In the United States and the western world, many gay men still experience discrimination in their daily lives,[2] though some openly gay men have reached national success and prominence, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and heads of state or government such as Xavier Bettel (Luxembourg), Edgars Rinkēvičs (Latvia), Gabriel Attal (France), and Leo Varadkar (Ireland).

Evidence of homoerotic sexual acts between men has been found in many pre-conquest civilizations in Latin America, such as the Aztecs, Mayas, Quechuas, Moches, Zapotecs, the Incas, and the Tupinambá of Brazil.

Although many escaped, the Royal Criminal Court sentenced fourteen men from different social and ethnic backgrounds to death by public burning, in accordance to the law passed by Isabella the Catholic in 1497.

The instances of same-sex affection and sexual interactions described in the classical novel Dream of the Red Chamber seem as familiar to observers in the present as do equivalent stories of romances between heterosexual people during the same period.

[31] The earliest Western documents (in the form of literary works, art objects, and mythographic materials) concerning same-sex male relationships are derived from ancient Greece.

There is ample evidence in the theater of Aristophanes that derides these passive men and gives a glimpse of the type of biting social opprobrium and shame ("atimia") heaped upon them by their society.

[35][36] During the Renaissance, wealthy cities in northern Italy—Florence and Venice in particular—were renowned for their widespread practice of same-sex love, engaged in by a considerable part of the male population and constructed along the classical pattern of Greece and Rome.

The law was interpreted in varying ways in Germany until 23 April 1880, when the Reichsgericht ruled that criminal homosexual acts involved either anal, oral, or intercrural sex between two men.

[citation needed] Gay men in the camps suffered an unusual degree of cruelty by their captors and were regularly used as the subjects for Nazi medical experiments as scientists tried to find a "cure" for homosexuality.

In September 1985, during his second term in office, US President Ronald Reagan publicly mentioned AIDS for the first time after being asked about his administration's lack of medical research funding for the crisis.

Kingsley Ragashanti Stewart, a professor of anthropology at the University of the West Indies, writes, "A lot of Jamaican men, if you call them a homosexual, ... will immediately get violent.

[86][87] Independent media and human rights groups have reported that gay men are being sent to clandestine camps in Chechnya, described by one eyewitness as "closed prison, the existence of which no one officially knows".

Polish President Andrzej Duda has pledged to ban teaching about gay men in schools, forbid same-sex marriage and adoption, and establish "LGBT-free zones".

While all same-sex activity is legal in Bahrain, Cyprus, the West Bank, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and Iraq, male homosexuality is illegal and punishable by imprisonment in Syria, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and Egypt.

Israel is the most progressive concerning LGBT rights and recognizing unregistered cohabitation; however, it has faced criticism from academics such as Sarah Schulman and Jason Ritchie for "pinkwashing.

Gay men in Singapore historically have been depicted negatively in local mainstream media, and efforts to counter this discrimination from wider Singaporean society has been made difficult because of the risk of jail, bans, and censorship by the state.

[146] The men, who co-authored The Young and Evil, described the drag ball as "a scene whose celestial flavor and cerulean coloring no angelic painter or nectarish poet has ever conceived ... lit up like high mass.

In a 2018 interview, director Ryan Murphy said he believed camp was "a lazy catchall that gets thrown at gay artists in order to marginalize their ambitions, to frame their work as niche" and preferred to describe his visual aesthetic style as "baroque".

[176] Gay men who experience sexual abuse also display lower self-esteem, a distorted sense of self-worth, and difficulty forming healthy emotional relationships.

According to a UNAIDS report, MSM have a "staggering" 27 times higher risk of contracting HIV than other demographic groups, and the highest median prevalence among this population is found in Sub-Saharan Africa.

[173][193] As a combination of these complex factors, many gay, bisexual, and MSM have higher rates of STIs, including chlamydia and gonorrhea, and in the United States, account for 83% of all primary and secondary syphilis cases.

[202] Institutionalization can affect gay and bisexual youth's later outcomes in life and lead to long-term addiction, reliance on sex work for survival, and prolonged homelessness.

"[211] In the United Kingdom, journalists have noted the role mobile apps such as Grindr have played in creating self-segregating subcultures (also called "tribes") within gay men's communities.

"[221] For educators, the inclusion of diverse curriculum and the development of peer support venues (such as Queer–Straight Alliances in North America) have been suggested as ways to reduce the frequency and effects of bullying and cyberbullying.

[226] In comparing gay boys and adolescents to their heterosexual peers, gay-identified youth show higher levels of resilience, positive self-esteem, and internal self-control.

[229] In spite of these advances in visibility and representation, however, gay fathers and their families still experience high levels of discrimination and social stigma from their relatives, neighbors, and other members of their communities.

"[236] Finally, in the United States, scholars have found that most older gay American men are not "strange, lonely creatures" but are instead "well-adjusted to their homosexuality and the aging process".

[239] They also note that gay and bisexual trans men in the U.S. report comparable levels of self-esteem, sexual satisfaction, or psychological adjustment to their cisgender peers.

"[240] Mac also stated that living as an LGBT man allows him to express his femme side, since he no longer feels the necessity to force a masc posture in public.

[244] In recent years, queer men with disabilities have achieved some mainstream media visibility, including through Ryan O'Connell's 2019 Netflix series Special, and the online popularity of the sexually fluid American model Nyle DiMarco.