What is the Stoic attitude about homosexuality and racial and gender issues?
This is one of my favorite questions because of our tradition and teachings as a philosophy. Homosexuality was never an issue in ancient Greece when Stoicism was founded, and it isn’t today, but with regard to racial and gender issues, only the Stoics were truly enlightened. Other philosophies were often contemptuous and disparaging, but there has never been any doubt with us: we are all equal. One little known fact is that Stoics were the first to condemn rape. At a time when rape was far more common than it is even today, the excuse for such behavior was, “The God of love, Eros, made me do it. I was driven to this passion by Eros and powerless to resist.” Stoics said that excuse was nonsense. Rape was wrong. You DO have the power to resist. No god can compel you to behave badly, and no one has the right to violate another person’s body. No excuses. Period. And, of course, we still believe that way today. Getting back to the matter of equality, the key here is reason. In antiquity, ou
