24/01/2023
The gay and male neo-pagan religion of Antinous worshippers have this week marked their twelfth anniversary on Facebook, noting “starting with only nine followers on January 17th 2011, Antinous now has 19,000 followers worldwide ... the most wonderful followers on Facebook!” The religion is not the first neo-pagan sect to appeal to LGBTQIA+ people, with many lesbian feminists in the seventies turned on to goddess worship and the Minoan Brotherhood exploring gay male spirituality during the same period. However, the religion around Antinous is particularly dynamic with a lively, daily updated webpresence and tens of thousands of followers around the world. In another post, the religion explains its heritage “Emperor Hadrian loved Antinous so much that when he died tragically in the Nile in October 130 AD, he declared Antinous a god and founded the city of Antinoopolis there and erected temples and raised statues to him throughout the Roman Empire. The last Classical deity!” Even if you are not interested in the spiritual aspects of this religion, which has formally resurrected by a group of gay and bi men some twenty years ago, then its blog is worth checking out for fascinating history articles, focussing on the spirituality of the ancient world, ancient history, Rome, Egypt and insights into gay male culture over the centuries.
