Dr. Harry Tanner’s The Queer Thing About Sin is a powerful, eye-opening journey that tracks the origins of homophobia, freeing us from the shackles of ‘sin.’

The story we’ve been told is simple: queer love is a modern deviation, an indulgence, a transgression—a sin. For generations, this narrative has been baked into Western culture, poisoning institutions and causing deep, personal wounds. But what if that story is a lie?

Dr. Harry Tanner’s debut book, The Queer Thing About Sin: Why the West Came to Hate Queer Love, isn’t just a history lesson; it’s an exhilarating act of reclamation. Using his background as an ancient Greek scholar—and his personal journey from evangelical Christian to fulfilled gay man—Tanner sets out to find the exact moment when queer love stopped being celebrated and became a crime punishable by death.

The Original Celebration

We often forget the glorious queer history that preceded the shame. As Tanner reminds us, in the early days of ancient Greece, same-sex love wasn’t just tolerated; it was celebrated. Think of the legendary warriors who loved other men, or the poets like Sappho, whose desire for women was immortalized and memorized by generations. The original fragments of the ancient world tell us clearly: it was not a sin to be queer.

So, how did the change happen? This is where Tanner’s analysis becomes absolutely vital.

The True Origin Story

Forget the tired script that blames ancient texts alone. Tanner’s research reveals a compelling and repeated pattern: homophobia takes root when societies face deep confluences of crises. He tracks the shift from ancient Judea to imperial Rome, finding that the rise of hatred is often tied not to divine command, but to economic inequality, pervasive social fear, and an obsession with self-control as a necessary antidote to perceived chaos.

In other words, when societies are struggling, they look for someone to blame, and the radical freedom of queer love becomes the perfect scapegoat—a sin of convenience, not conviction. As Russell T Davies puts it, this book is “brilliant and mind-bending,” making history “more vital, more dangerous, and more wonderful.”

Moving Forward, Liberated

For many in the queer community, the book’s greatest impact will be its therapeutic value. Reading Tanner’s account of how homophobia “infected Western religion and ideology” allows us to separate our identities from the condemnation often leveled against us. It forces us to reckon with the cultural sickness, not the alleged sin of our love.

Tanner himself is uniquely positioned to tell this story. As The Reverend Richard Coles notes, his journey to “self-acceptance and understanding is illuminating and timely.” It offers a strategy for consolidating our hard-won freedoms without having to destroy the possibility of faith or spirituality—a crucial distinction for many of us still reconciling our identities with our past.

The Queer Thing About Sin is more than a scholarly work. It’s a beautifully written, essential roadmap for understanding why we had to fight so hard for the right to love. By showing us exactly where the hatred originated, Dr. Tanner gives us the tools to finally and completely dismantle the myth of sin, and celebrate our love, unapologetically, for all time. This is a vital new work of queer scholarship, and it deserves to be read by everyone.

The Queer Thing About Sin: Why the West Came to Hate Queer Love by Dr. Harry Tanner is available on September 25th, 2025.