Heterosexuality is generally assumed to have existed ever since Adam and Eve frolicked naked in Yahweh’s garden. But it actually was invented in Germany in the 19th century. Men and women of course desired each other, had sexual relations, and formed relationships and families before then. But they didn’t think of themselves as heterosexual or as having a straight sexual identity. They couldn’t have, because heterosexuality (as a term, concept, and ideology) didn’t exist until the writer and sex law reformer Karl Maria Kertbeny invented it in 1869.
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