Famous gay men in history
'There can be neither love nor friendship'įrederick was born in 1712 at a time when Prussia was a military-dominated patchwork of titles and lands scattered from present-day Lithuania, Poland to across northern Germany.įour years before he was born, one-third of the kingdom's population died of plague. "Frederick the Great's reputation as one of the world's most famous homosexuals seems secure." "It seems few people ever believed Zimmermann's denials," wrote historian Alistair Blanchard. Being without his grapes wouldn't fit the image of a military commander, Zimmermann's theory goes - though there's no evidence Frederick was castrated - so he played gay.
Voltaire, la Beaumelle, the Duke de Choiseul, innumerable Frenchman and Germans, almost all the friends and enemies of Frederick, almost all the princes and great men of Europe, even his servants - even the confidants and friends of his later years, were of opinion that he had loved, as it is pretended, Socrates loved Alcibiades.īut even Zimmermann tried to straighten his hero, spinning a dubious and far-fetched theory that Frederick wasn't gay, he just wanted other people to think he was.Īccording to this theory, Frederick had been medically castrated after contracting gonorrhea. Several biographies have more than a whiff of homophobia. It was so widely known, the late historian Louis Crompton wrote in his book Homosexuality and Civilization, that historians had trouble reconciling Frederick's sexuality with his greatness. This matter is further complicated by how later historians - who either loved or hated him - dealt with Frederick's sexuality. But didn't straight guys use to speak to each other in more intimate ways than they do now? Where we use the word "orientation" today, 18th-century writers would call it a "taste." For some figures like Abraham Lincoln, the evidence is in the mash notes he wrote to his presumed boyfriend. Homosexuality is innate - at least it is for me - but the social conception of what being gay means has varied over time. Debating the sexuality of historical figures from centuries ago is fraught with politics and conflicting social theories. He was the symbol of Prussian masculinity and militarism, and he was also most likely gay.įrederick's sexuality isn't noteworthy by itself, but it's surprising that his love for men was considered a matter of fact in the macho world of 18th-century Prussia.įirst, we have to get one thing out of the way.