A pioneering figure in 19th century efforts to advance public understandings of same-sex relations, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs published a series of essays in 1862 arguing for the equal treatment of "Urnings" -- or men who engage in "Man-manly love." This was somewhat similar to a proto-homosexual, but Ulrichs describes urnings as something of a third sex -- a man's body with a woman's sensibilities. My favorite and unintentionally hilarious quote from this text:

Our sexual drive is one that demands periodical satisfaction, be it complete, be it incomplete. The latter consists of petting and absorbing that magnetic current that flows from the body of a young man, which is transmitted to us through physical contact with him.

The legal institution of marriage is not the institution for us. There is not priest or justice of the peace who would bind in marriage one of us and our beloved. Therefore, the natural state of the species exists for us, as it does fro the birds in the sky and the animals in the field; ie., marriage cannot be the prerequisite of a moral license for gratification in any relationship, at least as long as priests and justices of the peace are lacking. -- Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, "The Riddle of Man-Manly Love: The Pioneering Work on Male Homosexuality" (1994 / 1862), p. 40.

Here here, old boy! LOL. Seriously, the essay is pretty amazing. Click here to download a PDF of it!