The Revolutnary War Hero Who Was Openly Gay

THE REVOLUTNARY WAR HERO WHO WAS OPENLY GAY
HISTORY’S GREATT GAY GENERAL
HISTORY’S GREATT GAY GENERALWAR IS BORG·FOLLOWPUBLISHED WAR IS BORG·8 M READ·MAR 9, 2014--1LISTENSHARENO, NOT ALEXANR THE GREAT—FRERICK THE GREAT
RENNTRE GRATUE GAY à PARIS, (75)
THE REVOLUTNARY WAR HERO WHO WAS OPENLY GAY

Gay men have always been part of the Amerin ary. In an era before gay marriage or open pri, ary men fell love, formed passnate iendships and had same-sex enunters. But the se of one of the ary’s foundg hero, homosexualy was always part of the story.

Historians also thk he was homosexual—and served as an openly gay man the ary at a time when sex between men was punished as a crime. He also downplayed mors that the baron had been dismissed om the Pssian ary for homosexualy.

HISTORY’S GREATT GAY GENERAL

But he was gay, and homosexualy was viewed as a crimal aberratn by many of his peers.

”After the war, von Stben legally adopted both men—a mon practice among gay men an age before same-sex marriage was legal. John Mulligan, who was also gay, served as von Stben’s secretary and is thought to have had a relatnship wh the baron.

Durg von Stben’s lifetime, the ncept of gay marriage, gay pri or g out was unthkable and there was no language or open culture of homosexualy. But historil homosexual relatnships were actually don’t mean beg gay was ndoned: Sodomy was a crime lonial Ameri. Frerick the Great was he homosexual?

HISTORY’S GREATT GAY GENERALWAR IS BORG·FOLLOWPUBLISHED WAR IS BORG·8 M READ·MAR 9, 2014--1LISTENSHARENO, NOT ALEXANR THE GREAT—FRERICK THE GREAT

By no means am I agast homosexualy, Frerick the Great is one of my favore persons history and I am generally terted whether or not he was gay. He was an famo disciplarian, a thls manr, and a ary was the symbol of Pssian masculy and arism, and he was also most likely gay.

Homosexualy is nate — at least is for me — but the social nceptn of what beg gay means has varied over we e the word "orientatn" today, 18th-century wrers would ll a "taste. It was so wily known, the late historian Louis Crompton wrote his book Homosexualy and Civilizatn, that historians had trouble rencilg Frerick's sexualy wh his greatns. Several bgraphi have more than a whiff of his haggraphy of the kg, historian Thomas Carlyle rejected assertns that Frerick was gay as a "thrice-abomable mor" spread by those wh a "solacement to human malice and impertent cursy.

"Add Zimmermann:Voltaire, [the poet Lrent] la Bemelle, the [French foreign mister] De Choisl, numerable Frenchman and Germans, almost all the iends and enemi of Frerick, almost all the prc and great men of Europe, even his servants — even the nfidants and iends of his later years, were of opn that he had loved, as is pretend, Socrat loved even Zimmermann tried to straighten his hero, spng a dub and far-fetched theory that Frerick wasn't gay, he jt wanted other people to thk he was.

RENNTRE GRATUE GAY à PARIS, (75)

Beg whout his grap wouldn't f the image of a ary manr, Zimmermann's theory go — though there's no evince Frerick was strated — so he played gay.