The past chairman of Yale’s history department was gay and a convert to Catholicism. He resided in New Haven with his long-time companion, and died not too long ago (1994) at age 42 of an AIDS-related illness. Now, in "history according to Boswell," homosexuality was tolerated in the first centuries of Christianity and homosexual marriages were celebrated liturgically in the Middle Ages.

If you have a child enrolled in a Medieval History class at a university, you might check out the reading list – there is a good chance he will be exposed to Boswell's "scholarship." His 1980 book Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality has become the standard reference for those who want the Church to reverse its traditional teaching against homosexual unions and activities. This book, which Boswell admitted was written to prove there was acceptance of homosexuality in the Western Catholic tradition from the beginning of the Christian era until the 14th century, won the American Book Award for History in 1981.

His 1994 book, Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, raised the question of whether certain Greek or Byzantine Church medieval rituals that Boswell terms "same-sex marriages" were ecclesiastical blessings of homosexual unions. Despite Boswell’s claim to an objective interpretation of the facts, his views and scholastic labors were obviously shaped by his personal lifestyle and convictions.

Boswell goes so far as to identify the relationship of Our Lord and St. John as homosexual.

"What Boswell is trying to do is change the Catholic Church. I think that was his whole purpose," said Dr. Vern. L. Bullough, a professor emeritus of History at Buffalo Sate University of New York. I agree with Dr. Bullough. The interest of Boswell was first and foremost to find "facts" that could justify homosexuality as something normal and acceptable in order to further the gay rights agenda of our day.