Talk:Criminalization of homosexuality/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Danu Widjajanto (talk · contribs) 13:39, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

I am committing myself to reviewing this article, looking forward to reading it. Danu Widjajanto (talk) 13:39, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

Initial comments

• The title is a misnomer and should be changed to "criminalization of homosexual acts". None of the laws themselves criminalized homosexuality. Defenders of these laws often claimed that what they prohibited is the act itself, not the sexual orientation.
• "Criminalization of homosexuality is the classification of some or all sexual acts between men, and less frequently between women, as a criminal offense and the prosecution of individuals for consensual sex with another person of the same gender." --> isn't it a bit repetitive? I think the first limb is already sufficient.
• "The criminalization of homosexuality originated in Europe and spread elsewhere in the world via colonialism." --> this is an overly Eurocentric view. Criminalization is already mandated by the Hadith since the dawn of Islam, and Islamic countries nowadays criminalized homosexual acts by following the fiqh.
• The "Ancient through early modern world" Section is also overly Eurocentric. There is no discussion of Islam at all, while all the major schools of jurisprudence of Islam regulate criminalization of liwat extensively (e.g. different punishments for active/passive participants, married/unmarried participants, extensive debate on whether it is the same with zina or not). I would like to suggest the following literatures to enrich this part:
  • Mithliyyun or Lutiyyun? Neo-Orthodoxy and the Debate on the Unlawfulness of Same-Sex Relations in Islam by Barbara Zollner
  • Before Homosexuality in the Arab‐Islamic World, 1500–1800 by Khaled El-Rouayheb.
• "The Syro-Roman law book, influential in the Middle East, also contained penalties for homosexuality" --> influential in what way?
• "Both the criminalization and decriminalization of homosexuality are European inventions" --> another Eurocentric claim. Aceh has a criminal law against homosexual acts not because of the Dutch, but because they enforced Sharia law.
• Additional note: I also would like to suggest the works of Professor Kees Waaldijk to expand this article. He introduced the term "semi-recriminalization" for countries who decriminalized but still imposed a higher age of consent (e.g. the Netherlands in 1911). See Kees Waaldijk, Civil Developments: Patterns for Reform in the Legal Position of Same-Sex Partners in Europe.

Overall, I believe the issue of Eurocentrism needs to be adressed first, since it is essential to fulfil the criterion "Broad in its coverage". I will proceed with an in-depth review once these are solved. Danu Widjajanto (talk) 14:06, 24 January 2022 (UTC)