History Comes Out of the Closet

Alexander the Great

People of the past are remembered for their great deeds- everyday actions tend to go unrecorded. for this reason, some things aren’t always 100%.  Alexander the Great was allegedly a homosexual- or rather, bisexual. The problem is the imposition of our modern definitions on the past. Homoeroticism served a purpose is some Ancient cultures, while others had no standard definition for someone who preferred same-sex relationships.

The historian Plutarch tells of an incident with a Persian eunuch in 325 BC “”The Macedonians clapped in applause and loudly called for Alexander to kiss him, until eventually the king took him in his arms and gave him a kiss.” (!)

According to Quintius Curtius, the Persian eunuch (name: Bagoas) was a favorite of Alexander and Darius, the King of Persia.

But it has always been said that Alexander’s greatest love was Hephastion, his boyhood friend. He was torn to pieces by his death and “lay stretched on the corpse all day and the whole night too” (Arrinas)

However, Alexander was a discplined man- definitely a lover not a fighter. He deliberately turned a blind eye to the beautiful male youths of the time (also according to Plutarch) and even ignored the gorgeous women of Middle East. He is alleged to have had other lovers, including an Amazon woman.

Sappho 630?-612? BC to 570 BC

Sappho is the original Lesbian: she was from the Isle of Lesbos and the term came about because of her. Later Greeks named her as one of nine lyrical Greek poets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho

Much of her poetry regards the love of women.

Gertrude Stein February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946

Gertrude Stein was a poet who said: “America is my country and Paris is my hometown.” Her apartment at 27 rue de Fleur in Paris became a meeting place for ex-patriot writers like Ernest Hemingway, and artists such as Matisse and Picasso.

Image via Wikipedia

Some of Stein’s work contains the first known uses of the word gay in reference to same-sex relationships and her story “Miss Furr and Miss Skeene” is one of the first coming out stories.

Oscar Wilde 16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900

Oscar Wilde was the 19th Century Irish author of The Importance of Being Ernest and A Portrait of Dorian Gray. He described his own sexuality as “Socratic”. He was tried and imprisoned for being gay and from his confinement he wrote the piece “The Ballad of Reading Gaol.”

Image via Wikipedia

Walt Whitman May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892

Whitman, the great American poet said to be the Father of Free Verse, wrote openly about virtually all aspects human sexuality. His own sexuality remains debatable- some historians refuse to believe it, others point to accounts of people who met him as evidence.

Image via Wikipedia

Oscar Wilde, on his trip to America, wrote in a letter that: to the homosexual rights activist George Cecil Ives that there was “no doubt” about the great American poet’s sexual orientation — “I have the kiss of Walt Whitman still on my lips,” Wilde said.

Alan Turing 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954

Alan Turing has been named as one of the most influential people of the 20th century He is called the Father of Computer science for his contributions to computer science. During WWII, he worked for the British government as a cryptanalyst. He was also interested in chemistry.

His career came to an end when his homosexuality was discovered. At the time, homosexuality was considered a mental illness. Also, there was fear of homosexual entrapment by KGB agents (?). Although he was never accused of espionage, Turing lost his security clearance. To avoid imprisonment, he had to agree to hormonal treatments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Turing#Chemical_castration

He died under mysterious circumstances- he died in his cleep of cyanide poisoning, with a half-eaten apple at his bedside. It was believed that he committed suicide, but his mother said that he was careless in the way he stored his chemicals. It has also been suggested that he was assassinated.

Virginia Woolf 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941

Virginia Woolf was a novelist and literary critic. Her works are some of the most important contributions to modernist literature and English literature in general. She is known to have had an affair with a woman named Vita Sackville-West, although Woolf and her husband, Leonard shared a close relationship.

Virginia Woolf suffered from depression off and on throughout her life. She ended it herself by drowning herself in the River Ouse near her home.

Other “History” Articles:

• History Gets Mysterious
• History Goes Green