History of lesbianism
Lesbianism is the sexual and romantic desire between women. There are historically fewer mentions of lesbianism than male homosexuality, due to many historical writings and records focusing primarily on men. Ancient period Ancient Mesopotamia Women's sexuality in ancient Mesopotamia is not well documented. Stephanie Lynn Budin, writing on love magic, argues that "there remains no evidence for lesbianism in this regard (or any other from Mesopotamia)." However, there are at least two pieces of textual evidence for Mesopotamian lesbianism. One is a divinatory text which mentions female same-sex activity, while another, more explicit text remains unpublished. There are also mentions in the Code of Hammurabi () of a sal-zikrum. This term may translate to "woman-man" and refer to a gender-nonconforming individual, "perhaps a female functionary, attached to a temple." The word is regularly treated as grammatically feminine, but a sal-zikrum was allowed to marry women, and she inherited the same amount as her brothers. It is possible that a female transgressor of gender boundaries was regarded as a "woman-man" because of her social behavior (i.e., relationships with other women). The term sal-nu-bar, according to a disputed belief, referred to women who were allowed to marry but not to have children,