People Are Sharing The Historical Figures That They Learned Were Queer Later In Life, And WOW This Is Actually Pretty Dope

3 days ago 13

While immoderate of these answers are inactive hotly debated, present are a fewer of the champion responses:

1. "Leonardo Da Vinci gets rather a spot of erasure. A movie from a fewer years backmost had him successful emotion with a pistillate adjacent though helium was intelligibly cheery successful existent life. There are tribunal records of him being charged with homosexual acts."

Backstory: There is nary definitive impervious Da Vinci was gay, but determination is simply a statement among historians that helium was. He ne'er joined and was not known to person romanticist relationships with women. He besides famously had adjacent relationships with galore antheral apprentices, immoderate of whom lived with him for years. He was charged with sodomy twice, but was acquitted owed to deficiency of evidence.

2. "I had a speech astir Oscar Wilde precocious and I was perfectly stunned that it seemingly wasn’t communal knowledge."

Backstory: Wilde was joined to a pistillate and had 2 children, but his affairs with men landed him successful jail. His astir famous affair was with Lord Alfred Douglas. Their romance was precise blatant, which led Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, to impeach Wilde of having an matter with his son. Wilde sued for libel, but the proceedings exposed him instead. And since homosexuality was a crime, it led to a condemnation for gross indecency. He was sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment with hard labor.

3. "Eleanor Roosevelt was good cognize and accepted astatine the clip successful society."

Backstory: Historians mostly hold that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was bisexual. She exchanged astir 4,000 letters with person Lorena Hickok, writing things like, "I privation to enactment my arms astir you" and "I ache to clasp you close."

4. "How astir James Buchanan. Never joined and had a beingness agelong antheral 'friend'. I deliberation it would melt galore Americans' brains to cognize we astir apt person already had a cheery president."

Backstory: James Buchanan is the only president who did not person a archetypal lady. While determination is nary conclusive grounds that helium was gay, galore historians believe helium was. The ground for this speculation is Buchanan's narration with William Rufus King, an Alabama legislator who served arsenic vice president nether Franklin Pierce. Buchanan and King were inseparable. They lived unneurotic and had specified a adjacent enslaved that radical called them, “Mr. Buchanan and his Wife," oregon “Aunt Nancy” and “Aunt Fancy.”

5. "Ernest Hemingway. I retrieve speechmaking much than erstwhile that helium had the occasional antheral lover, but I can't decently callback the root anymore."

"I’ve work a batch of Hemingway’s works and a respective books astir him, and helium decidedly held a double-standard successful his cognition towards cheery people. He despised cheery men and called them slurs. Gay women fascinated him though, and helium loved spending clip with them and penning astir them. He was accepting of lesbian couples, though helium seems to person preferred femmes who were inactive considered charismatic according to hetero quality standards. He was initially rather adjacent with Gertrude Stein, but they had a falling out. He wrote astir witnessing a precise intimate infinitesimal betwixt Gertrude and her partner, Alice, without their cognition successful A Moveable Feast. His code seemed embarrassed and disgusted. Perhaps this was owed to seeing the 'real' quality of lesbians, and 2 who had 'masculine' traits. He didn’t look to attraction overmuch for butch women oregon feminine men."

Backstory: Many modern historians judge that Ernest Hemingway had a fluid thought of sexuality. He joined 4 women passim his life, but was profoundly fascinated by sex roles, androgyny, and intersexual experimentation. In public, helium was known for his hyper-masculine persona, but helium explored an expansive spectrum of intersexual and sex expressions successful his work.

Backstory: Historians fiercely statement Hoover's sexuality. He ne'er joined and held a lifelong, profoundly adjacent narration with his second-in-command, Clyde Tolson. Hoover and Tolson lived adjacent each different and were inseparable. They were often seen sharing meals doubly a day, and they vacationed together. When Hoover died, Tolson inherited his estate. Then, erstwhile Tolson died, helium was buried conscionable a fewer yards from Hoover.

7. "Frida Kahlo. Her representation is EVERYWHERE successful Mexico, and galore Mexicans are inactive precise conservative. I ideate that a batch of radical either wouldn’t similar to beryllium reminded that Frida had pistillate lovers and/or they’d reply by 'reminding' maine that she and Diego remained joined for their full lives. Frida and Diego are inactive precise overmuch touted arsenic 1 of art’s top powerfulness couples, existent loves contempt differences/difficulties. Diego’s extramarital affairs are mentioned often; Frida’s little truthful and sometimes made to look similar conscionable a absorption to her husband’s infidelity."

Backstory: Frida was bisexual. While joined to celebrated muralist Diego Rivera, she had precise well-documented relationships with some men and women. She was romantically linked with Josephine Baker, creator Georgia O'Keeffe, histrion Paulette Goddard, and exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky.

8. "Emily Dickinson penning to her sis successful law, Sue, 'I tore unfastened your missive and licked the envelope's seal for immoderate lingering hint of you,' and historians deliberation they’re conscionable 'really bully friends' 🙄."

The Backstory: Emily Dickinson wrote hundreds of passionate and romanticist letters to her sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert, who lived close adjacent doorway successful Amherst, Massachusetts. One specified missive read, "Susie, volition you so travel location adjacent Saturday, and beryllium my ain again, and buss maine arsenic you utilized to?… I anticipation for you truthful much, and consciousness truthful anxious for you, consciousness that I cannot wait, consciousness that present I indispensable person you — that the anticipation erstwhile much to spot your look again makes maine consciousness blistery and feverish, and my bosom beats truthful accelerated — I spell to slumber astatine night, and the archetypal happening I know, I americium sitting determination wide awake, and clasping my hands tightly, and reasoning of adjacent Saturday." Many of these idiosyncratic letters were primitively censored oregon edited by publishers to fell their romance.

9. "King James! He sponsored the rewriting of the Bible during his reign and helium was gay. So idiosyncratic who rewrote (I mean, helium didn't virtually rewrite it, helium sponsored different radical to rewrite it) the Bible was a flaming homo. Take that Christians!"

Backstory: Many historians judge King James VI of Scotland (who besides became King James I of England) was bisexual oregon gay. While helium was joined and had children, helium had well-known relationships with men. That astir celebrated lawsuit was George Villiers. James promoted Villiers continuously, culminating successful his assignment arsenic the Duke of Buckingham. James besides wrote intimate, romanticist letters to Villiers, referring to him arsenic "my kid and wife" portion calling himself Villiers' "dear dada and husband." Historians besides discovered a concealed transition connecting James' country to Villiers'. James' assertion to fame, though, is commissioning what is astir apt the astir celebrated translation of the Bible: the King James Version.

10. "Sally Ride, she was my icon arsenic a kid, and I lone recovered retired precocious that she was LGBT. Her spouse/lover, Tam, is referred to arsenic her 'life partner' oregon 'girlhood friend' astir of the time. My schoolhouse textbooks marque nary notation of Tam oregon Sally's sexuality astatine all."

Backstory: In 1983, Sally Ride made past arsenic the archetypal American pistillate to alert successful space. She was an icon, but she kept her romanticist beingness backstage for her full life. Ride joined chap astronaut Steven Hawley successful 1982, and they were unneurotic until 1987. Decades later, erstwhile Ride died successful 2012, it was revealed successful her obituary that she had a 27-year narration with her partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy. In 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Ride the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which O'Shaughnessy accepted connected her behalf.

11. "Alexander Hamilton."

The Backstory: Whether oregon not Hamilton was cheery oregon bisexual is hotly debated by historians. At the halfway of that statement are letters that Hamilton wrote to Revolutionary War serviceman John Laurens. In 1 infamous letter, Hamilton wrote to Laurens: "I wish, my beloved Laurens … it mightiness beryllium successful my power, by enactment alternatively than words, to person you that I emotion you." According to PBS: "The letters are portion of a signifier of specified correspondence betwixt men, and contiguous a occupation of interpretation. These letters marque it wide that Hamilton and Laurens had a passionate bond, and, to a modern reader, their professions of emotion and longing would look to connote an intimate intersexual relationship. In the discourse of their time, however, specified 'romantic friendships' and effusive declarations of emotion were communal some betwixt men and betwixt women, and whitethorn not person had a intelligibly intersexual component."

12. "Tchaikovsky, I suppose."

Backstory: Pyotr Tchaikovsky is 1 of the astir celebrated composers successful history, and helium was gay. In Russia, this is vehemently denied, and galore of his letters person been heavy edited. In the uncensored letters, Tchaikovsky wrote candidly astir his attraction to men. He adjacent feminized his ain name, signing arsenic "Petrolina" astatine times. To quiescent the gossip astir his sexuality, Tchaikovsky married a pupil of his, Antonina Milyukova. However, the matrimony lasted a mates of weeks earlier helium had a tense breakdown and fled to Switzerland. They remained "legally married" until Tchaikovsky's death, but helium lived retired his beingness arsenic a azygous man.

13. "Frederick the Great of Prussia, I'd person to say. He had a long-time antheral lover, and it was specified a ungraded astatine the clip that helium was astir prohibited from taking the throne, and helium made predominant attempts to simply tally disconnected and beryllium with them. It sucks that this feline has been coopted implicit the years by German nationalists and other, well, much abhorrent figures from that portion of Europe."

Backstory: Many modern historians judge that Frederick the Great was gay. While helium entered into a governmental marriage, helium lived astir wholly abstracted from his wife, and their national was considered loveless. Frederick ne'er had children, and helium surrounded himself with antheral companions and secretaries. He built the Sanssouci Palace successful Potsdam, which was chiefly a "women-free zone." Frederick filled the property with homoerotic classical artwork and surrounded himself with antheral philosophers and musicians. In 1 letter, Frederick allegedly wrote to different man, "Mes hémorroïdes saluent affectueusement votre v[erge]" which translates to "My hemorrhoids affectionately greet your penis."

14. And finally, "Alexander the Great."

Backstory: Historians mostly judge Alexander the Great was bisexual, but specified presumption are precise modern. At that time, same-sex relationships were normalized. For instance, successful Thebes, they formed the celebrated elite warring force, "The Sacred Band," which was comprised of antheral lovers trained to combat fiercely unneurotic (Where is this movie?!?!). Macedonian nobleman and wide Hephaestion is thought to beryllium 1 of Alexander's antheral lovers. They shared a lifelong intimate enslaved that began arsenic puerility friends and grew to go subject comrades. While it's inactive debated, galore historians judge they were lovers.

Looking for much LGBTQ+ oregon Pride content? Then cheque retired each of BuzzFeed's posts celebrating Pride 2026.

Read Entire Article