On Thanksgiving, Vice published a piece called, “The Pilgrims Were Queer,” a title which was highly inaccurate in its implication that homosexuality was widespread in Puritan society , but apparently necessary in order to permit social justice warriors to feel better about celebrating the holiday.
The author writes of a 1625 colony called Merrymount (originally called Passonagessit) surmising it was a gay enclave, writing, “In fact, as historians note, the name “Merrymount” can also refer to a Latin phrase meaning “erect phallus”—quite a coincidence, given the men erected an 80-foot pole in the center of town.” Except Morton said of the pole that it stood as a “fair sea mark for directions,” describing it as “a goodly pine tree of 80 foot long, was reared up, with a pair of buckshorns nailed on, somewhat near unto the top of it; where it stood as a fair sea mark for directions, how to find out the way to mine Host of Ma-re Mount.”
Other, more credible evidence the author cites of tolerance for same-sex practices in that particular colony: that “Morton declared himself ‘‘Lord of Misrule” and his people were described by Nathaniel Hawthorne as a “crew of Comus,” a reference to a mythological figure during whose ceremonies men and women exchanged clothing.”- READ MORE