Gay general

Homosexuality is innate — at least it is for me — but the social conception of what being gay means has varied over time. Frederick the Great is one of history's most famous and adept military commanders. He was the symbol of Prussian masculinity and militarism, and he was also most likely gay.

Voltaire, [the poet Laurent] la Beaumelle, the [French foreign minister] 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.

Inopenly gay, Prussian military expert, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben joined George Washington’s Revolutionary Army without pay.

Macauley was notoriously hostile to Frederick, and wrote that the king was a "haughty, vigilant, resolute, sagacious blue-stocking, half Mithridates, and half Trissotin. But is it impertinent to talk about it? First, we have to get one thing out of the way.

Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. Frederick'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. The historian Thomas Babington Macauley wrote that Frederick was prone to "vices from which history averts general eyes, and which even Satire blushes to name.

He was an infamous disciplinarian, a ruthless commander, and a military genius. Hobart R. Gay Lieutenant General Hobart Raymond Gay (May 16, – August gay, ), nicknamed "Hap", was a United States Army officer who served in numerous conflicts, including World War II, where he worked closely alongside General George S.

Patton, and later in the Korean War, where he commanded the 1st Cavalry Division. Several biographies have more than a whiff of homophobia. Stepping in at Valley Forge, von Steuben turned the ragtag, colonial patriots into the Continental Army trained with discipline to fight in battle and win.

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Some of these "rumors" likely were salacious. Where we use the word "orientation" today, 18th-century writers would call it a "taste. Intwo years after the king's death, the historian Johann Georg Zimmermann noted that Frederick was widely known to have — in perhaps a nod to Alexander the Great — a " Grecian taste in love.

Not according to numerous accounts at the time. He's not Napoleon, but pretty damn close. The 18th-century Prussian king is credited with transforming a backwater patchwork of Baltic lands into a modern state — all while fending off armies four times the size of his own.

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From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Debating the sexuality of historical figures from centuries ago is fraught with politics and conflicting social theories.

It was so widely known, the late historian Louis Crompton wrote in his book Homosexuality and Civilizationthat 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.

In his hagiography of the king, historian Thomas Carlyle rejected assertions that Frederick was gay as a " thrice-abominable rumor " spread by those with a "solacement to human malice and impertinent curiosity. Escape your echo chamber. But didn't straight guys use to speak to each other in more intimate ways than they do now?