Lesbian, gay, bi, and trans people have made history since the beginning of human history.
So why didn’t you learn about these folks’ queerness in school?
Blame the historians. For decades — actually centuries — many of them have omitted, underplayed, or obscured the sexuality of LGBTQ people.1 Two men living together and sharing a bed for years? Oh, they were just roommates! Those erotically charged poems Donatello wrote to Tommaso de Cavalieri? When they were published, all the male pronouns were changed to female ones.
Fortunately, today, many historians are setting the record straight queer. Here are just a few of the people you know … but didn’t know were LGBTQ:2
Quite a Few Residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
- Abraham Lincoln may have been the Great Emancipator, but he wasn’t a straight emancipator.
- James Buchanan, a so-called confirmed bachelor, was involved with William Rufus DeVane King of Alabama — and everyone knows it’s hard to resist a man from Alabama.
- Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok wrote thousands of love letters to each other. An excerpt:
Oh! how I wanted to put my arms around you in reality instead of in spirit. I went & kissed your photograph instead & the tears were in my eyes. Please keep most of your heart in Washington as long as I’m here for most of mine is with you!”
Letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to Lorena Hickok
The Namesakes of All Four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Renaissance culture was relatively tolerant of LGBTQ people:
In Italy, one of the hearts of the Renaissance, humanism led to the increasing toleration of hedonism and bisexuality as Classical values. Classical myths dignified homosexual intercourse, and artists were both privately and publically homosexual.
Queer Storytelling in Visual Media, The University of Michigan
Here’s a quick look at our fabulous foursome:
- Michelangelo: He’s the guy who sculpted David’s abs (and other body parts).
- Leonardo de Vinci: Could the Last Supper have been based on a drag brunch?
- Donatello: He also sculpted a David, because everyone loves a David.
- Raphael: He reportedly got it on with everyone and died of syphilis at 37.
World Leaders
- Building an empire that spanned as far as Egypt and India made Alexander the Great great. But his relationships with men made him fabulous.
- James I gave his male lovers titles, and there’s a Bible named after him. Meanwhile, I give the Complimentary Spouse awesome pet names, but I can’t even get a sandwich named after me.3
- Richard I of England (aka Richard the Lionheart) had a scandalous affair with Phillip II of France. It didn’t end well. They went to war with each other. That’s an epic breakup.
- Joan of Arc, the hero of France and bane of England, shared her bed with women and girls and may have been transgender.4 The only thing we are absolutely certain of is that she wasn’t Noah’s wife. (Insert dad joke groan here.)
Other Famous and Infamous Folks
- American writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were lovers.
- Walt Whitman‘s “Leaves of Grass” includes some pretty obvious references to gay love. Some are quite erotic. In one poem, Whitman is in the shower when the pizza delivery guy rings the doorbell, so he rushes to the door wearing nothing but a towel, but realizes he doesn’t have any money to tip the delivery guy with, so he invites him in, and then … wait, I’m thinking of something else.
- After that whole kerfuffle with the axe murders, Lizzie Borden was linked with Nance O’Neil, a contemporary actress.
- After a long day of waging war against gay people, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover went home to his partner, Clyde Tolson. The two were together for over 40 years, but Hoover used his clout to ensure the secret never got out.
There’s More to Discover
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Historians have shoved many queer people into history’s closet, and we’re only starting to discover how many LGBTQ figures there really are.5
Want to learn more? Head to your local library, flip through the card catalog, jot down the Dewey Decimal number, walk over to the stacks, hope the book you need is on the shelf, check it out, take it home, and start reading!
Or just use Google, you lazy schmuck.
footnotes
- Until recently, most Western historians were straight, white, cisgender, and male. And, until recently. most historical accounts were written with straight, white, cisgender, male perspective. I’m sure this is merely a coincidence. ↩︎
- Apologies in advance for focusing on Western history. You’ll find LGBTQ folks in the histories of every country, culture, and people. ↩︎
- I have a few ideas in R&D. ↩︎
- Out of all the people I mention in this post, she’s the most contentious. Let’s consider Joan of Arc 50% speculation and 50% fact. ↩︎
- One thing to keep in mind is that, until the early part of the 20th Century, these people wouldn’t have identified themselves as LGBTQ the way we do today. The concepts, understanding, and terminology we use today are relatively new. In fact, the term “homosexual” is only about 150 years old. ↩︎