We often criticize the Republican Party for being stuck in the 19th Century, while we Democrats are moving forward through the 21st.  On some issues, this is apparently a much too generous assessment of the GOP.  On the issue of sanctioning same-sex unions (most Republicans oppose even the most basic domestic partnership arrangements), it appears the Republicans may be up to 600 years behind the times.

I found this interesting article on Yahoo and though it was interesting enough to post, especially as it was published on the same day as the Larry Craig outing:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/2007 0827/sc_livescience/gayunionssanctionedi nmedievaleurope

Gay Unions Sanctioned in Medieval Europe
Mon Aug 27, 12:00 PM ET

"Civil unions between male couples existed around 600 years ago in medieval Europe, a historian now says.

Historical evidence, including legal documents and gravesites, can be interpreted as supporting the prevalence of homosexual relationships hundreds of years ago, said Allan Tulchin of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania ...

"Western family structures have been much more varied than many people today seem to realize," Tulchin writes in the September issue of the Journal of Modern History. "And Western legal systems have in the past made provisions for a variety of household structures." ...

The same type of legal contract of the time also could provide the foundation for a variety of non-nuclear households, including arrangements in which two or more biological brothers inherited the family home from their parents and would continue to live together, Tulchin said.

But non-relatives also used the contracts. In cases that involved single, unrelated men, Tulchin argues, these contracts provide "considerable evidence that the affrèrés were using affrèrements to formalize same-sex loving relationships." ...

"I suspect that some of these relationships were sexual, while others may not have been," Tulchin said. "It is impossible to prove either way and probably also somewhat irrelevant to understanding their way of thinking. They loved each other, and the community accepted that."