Advent 1

It's that time of year again, when people get sick of Christmas decorations and tired old festive songs, and wish Christmas was over - and it's not even begun! This is the first week of Advent when, traditionally, Christians start preparing for Christmas. Very few people bother to find out about proper traditions nowadays. For instance, NO decorations or trees should go up before Christmas Eve - it's considered unlucky. You should NEVER put anything on the top of the tree until Christmas morning for the same reason. And no self-respecting Christian ever takes their decorations down BEFORE 2nd February, the last day of Christmas.

Various opinions float around about homophobia and the church, mainly based on hearsay or prejudice. Even though the church has said that homosexuality is immoral, an abomination or unnatural, no Christian church has officially said it’s a sin, so no-one can use this as a reason to be atheist!

In England the first law that specifically targeted homosexuality was in 1534. This was in order to give Henry VIII extra ammunition in his battle to close the monasteries, which have always had a legendary reputation as hot-beds of gay sex, whether true or not. Henry enlisted the help of two sons of Nottinghamshire to formulate and enforce the Act. First was Thomas Cromwell, the King's Secretary. Cromwell's grandfather came from a long-established family from (you guessed) Cromwell. Thomas drew up the Act. The other man was Thomas Cranmer, born in Aslocton, the Archishop of Canterbury. His support for King Henry and the Act gave the monasteries no hope of calling on him for help.

Most of today's homophobia has its roots in this Act. Before 1534 punishment for homosexual acts was predominantly aimed at the clergy. After 1534 it included everyone. From then on all society became more homophobic, building up to the teachings of the Puritans a century later - something I'll mention another time.

(A genealogical footnote is that Cranmer's brother is ancestor of Lord Byron and Cole Porter).

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk