Romantic Friendship Not Lesbianism This article needs to be edited to change the way it deals with the argument that the Ladies were lesbian The Laides themselves denied this and in fact I am not aware of any evidence that their relationship was sexual Yet the article refers to them as though they were in fact lesbians We must be careful not to impose modern ideas about sexual identity on people from the past In previous eras in history it was more common for heterosexuals to express their affection for friends of the same gender in more passionate terms than we are accustomed to today Indeed same gendered friends would often have an emotionally and physically intimate relationship but without any sexual content This was known as romantic friendship However since the Victorian era with its rigid attitude towards the sexual such relationships have declined and there is a homophobic tendency to brand people who seek intimate though non sexual relationships with people of the same gender as gay This is something I regard as deeply unfortunate it stems from our tendency to rigidly delineate what is gay and what is straight In some ways our modern society is very insecure in terms of sexuality