I recently learned about "Boston marriages" that occurred frequently a few hundred years ago, in which women would live together and often had romantic relationships, which were not looked down upon until the Victorian Era, when many historians erased evidence of these same-sex relationships.
This reminds me of other tales I've heard of same-sex relationships, which were common in Ancient Greece as well as other ancient societies. I also haven't really seen any definitive stories of violence against people in same-sex marriages until recent years--at the same time, I haven't heard of much violence or even explicit legal discrimination against homosexuals/bisexuals/etc. until the 20th century, either.
My question is: Although same-sex relationships are prohibited in the Bible, was it not really considered a "big deal" before the Victorian Era, or is it really something that has been consistently looked down upon since the birth of Christ?
Under the caption Capitall Laws in the 94th paragraph of the Massachusetts Body of Liberties of 1641 is 94.8, which reads:
(Lev. 20. 13.) If any man lyeth with mankinde as he lyeth with a woeman, both of them have committed abhomination, they both shall surely be put to death.
The reference is to Leviticus 20:13
http://history.hanover.edu/texts/masslib.html#ms
My sense is that this provision in the law was not considered to be unusual or harsh by the then contemporary standards.
Since the old Puritans were legalistic to a fault and their criminal laws clearly distinguished between men, women, mankind and a person The Liberties permit the inference that the Puritans took no official notice of the Boston marriages you describe. The records of the Massachusetts Bay Colony do record people being executed under paragraph 94.8.