Indeed, many of these cultures had variously tolerated, acknowledged, accepted, or celebrated diverse sexualities and genders, before encountering Western colonial powers, Christian influence, and anti-gay mindsets.
One mention by Ying Shao, who lived about 140 to 206, does relate palace women attaching themselves as husband and wife, a relationship called dui shi.
Sometimes charges of homosexual relations were propagated by enemies, often rumors of such activities were denied, and sometimes same-sex lovers were acknowledged openly.
[7] On 7 March 2008 Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo, 21st Duchess of Medina Sidonia, a Spanish aristocrat, married Liliana Maria Dahlmann in a civil ceremony on her deathbed.
[9][10] In 2016, Lord Ivar Mountbatten, a cousin of the then-reigning Queen Elizabeth II, became the first member of the British aristocracy to come out as gay.