Famous Homosexual Figures in History and Literature

“Men make clothes for the women they’d like to be with or—in most cases—the women
they’d like to be.”

This was a quote about homosexuality said by Robert Altman, a screenwriter.

Homosexuals, as we know, are persons who are attracted to a person or persons of the same
sex. Homosexuality is considered a deviant behavior, as most of the society is considered
heterosexual, or persons who are attracted to the opposite sex. As of today, homosexuality is
being slowly accepted again in our society. Again? Yes, again, because homosexuality was once
widely accepted in some societies. As a matter of fact, some of the most well-known persons in
history are homosexual.

Evidence of homosexuality was traced back all the way to Ancient Egypt, about 2400 BC,
wherein the very first recorded same-sex couple was found. Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum were
ancient Egyptian royal servants. They were buried together, and were listed as “royal confidants”.
Even in their religion, evidences of homosexuality were found. Seth, the ancient god of the
deserts, storms, and chaos was said to have Horus, the ancient god of the sky and his rival, and
Osiris, the ancient god of the underworld, as his partners.

Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome were very acceptant, and even practiced,
homosexuality. The practice was called pederasty, wherein an older man, called the erastes, will
take an adolescent, the eromenos, under his wing as his student-slash-lover. Philosophers like
Aristotle, Socrates and Plato were followers of this practice. Other famous queers during that time
were Alexander the Great and the Roman Kings, particularly Julius Caesar who was called “every
woman’s husband, every man’s wife” and Mark Anthony, the lover of Cleopatra.

Homosexuality has been acknowledged in China since ancient times. Nearly every
emperor in the Han dynasty had one or more male partner. Ancient Japan also accepted
homosexuality, particularly among samurai. They had their own version of pederasty, particularly
in the samurais.

Some of the famous Italian figures in arts are also queers. Michelangelo Buonarroti and
Leonardo da Vinci were some of them. There are also famous homosexuals in the field of
literature. Of course, our favorite Alfred Lord Tennyson is one. A few others are Emily Dickinson,
American poet, William Shakespeare, whom everyone knows, Virginia Woolf and Ralph Waldo
Emerson. Also, Hans Christian Andersen, Walt Whitman, and Sir Francis Bacon were also said to
be gay.

In the modern world, many persons are now coming out. Sir Elton John, Freddie Mercury
from the band Queen, Rosie O’Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres, Clay Aiken, Mark Feehily from the
boyband Westlife… These are just some people who have admitted that they are gay. They can
safely come out now, because some activists have made the situation of homosexual people
better than what they were suffering during the 70’s and 80’s. People are now starting to treat
queers the same way they treat straight people. After all, according to Boethius, “Who would give
a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law.” Who are we, indeed, to judge homosexuality
when it itself has existed far longer than we did.