'We're not talking about earthy love, but about pure, real, sparkling love,' a young doctor from Berlin, going by the name of Th. Ramien, wrote in a pamphlet called Sappho and Socrates.
Often cited as one of the first texts defending and normalizing homosexuality, it tells the story of soldier who, during his wedding reception, takes his own life because he is forced into marriage with a woman.
'[We're talking] about this unfathomable feeling of highest earthly happiness, which poets describe so lyrically in its godly magic,' Ramien continued.
'This condition in which, whether awake or in dreams, the subject of love reigns over us, which we guard it with jealousy, whose sight and touch elate.'
Doctor Ramien, however, never existed.
Published on Gay Star News, 8 October 2016
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