Was Frerick the Great gay? |

Contents:

• HISTORY’S GREATT GAY GENERAL
• THE REVOLUTNARY WAR HERO WHO WAS OPENLY GAY
• 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
• ATHEIST AND GAY, FRERICK THE GREAT WAS MORE RADIL THAN MOST LEARS TODAY
• WAS FRERICK THE GREAT GAY?
• GAYT PLAC IN MARYLAND FOR 2020

HISTORY’S GREATT GAY GENERAL

But while the Netherlands, which 2001 beme the first untry to legalize gay marriage, has paved the wave for a queer royal to officially wear the crown, LGBTQ people have long been dog so unofficially. (The term “cut sleeve” remaed a Che phemism for male homosexualy for centuri.

The liph’s sexualy has been the source of some bate: Acrdg to the French medievalist Évariste Lévi-Provençal, the phrase “hubb al-walad, ” found 16th-century historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari’s pendium "Nafh at-Tib" reference to Al-Hakam II, translat as a “preference for boys, ” though other scholars mata refers to paternal Medieval Europe scholar Francis Prado-Vilar wrote that knowledge of Al-Hakam’s homosexualy the urt of Córdoba “enuraged the ambns of the factns gathered around his much younger brother, Prce al-Mughira.

”“In his youth his lov seem to have been entirely homosexual, ” queer studi scholar Louis Crompton wrote “Male Love and Islamic Law Arab Spa.

THE REVOLUTNARY WAR HERO WHO WAS OPENLY GAY

Young as “​​the most proment homosexual figure the early morn perd. )“To the shock of many urtiers, the pair were monstratively affectnate to each other public, spe Jam’ var proclamatns agast homosexualy, ” Daniel Smh wrote “Love Letters of Kgs and Queens. Frerick the Great of Pssia (1712 - 1786)Even his lifetime, this Pssian royal was wily mored to be a homosexual, though that term wouldn’t be ed till nearly 90 years after his years after the kg’s ath, his physician Johann Ge Rter von Zimmermann published a book which he sperately tried to dispel gossip Frerick had a “Grecian taste love.

And rather than let that secret out, Frerick pretend to be gay, “so that he would ntue to appear virile and pable of sexual terurse, albe wh men. But he did ltle to obscure his sexualy: Sanssouci, his palace Potsdam, was filled wh homoerotic art and, across Europe, “l Potsdamists” beme slang for kg allegedly pursued the Veian philosopher Franc Algarotti and even famed French philosopher Voltaire, who lived wh him at Sanssouci, though ’s not certa if eher relatnship was Voltaire’s ath 1778, a mancript of his memoir tailg Frerick’s homosexual tennci tail was stolen and published the Netherlands.

”The archde spent the rt of his life secln at Klsheim Palace near Salzburg, where he died at the age of 76 1919, three years after his brother’s ath and one year after the Atro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved after the end of World War II of Buganda (1868 - 1903)Discsn of Uganda’s treatment of homosexualy ually settl on Print Yoweri Meveni’s “Kill the Gays” bill, but this 19th century kabaka, or kg, of Buganda allegedly had sexual relatnships wh men along wh his 16 1886, Mwanga II orred the btal torture and aths of dozens of urtiers and pag, wh many burned alive.

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

“I hear there was homosexualy Mwanga’s palace, ” Meveni told a crowd of thoands on Martyr Day 2010, the Atlantic reported. His homosexualy was not only a part of his inty, but was also wily known (Voltaire wrote salacly about durg their fallg out).

But Frerick the Great, the Pssian kg and ary lear, was wily acknowledged as gay by his ntemporari. Acunts of Frerick’s homosexualy began his youth when the 16-year-old prce had an affair wh a 17-year-old male page named Peter Karl Christoph von Keh.

In adulthood, Frerick the Great ntued to enter to gay relatnships. As he steadily built Pssia to a European power through ary and other means, he filled his palace Sanssouci wh homoerotic art and enjoyed relatnships wh the great, male mds of the day.

ATHEIST AND GAY, FRERICK THE GREAT WAS MORE RADIL THAN MOST LEARS TODAY

Voltaire wrote extensively about Frerick the Great’s homosexualy — and the homosexualy of men his circle — but he reportedly never meant for this wrg to be ma public. Some nied that Frerick the Great was gay. Zimmerman offered the nvoluted ncln that to hi his impotence the kg pretend to be gay “so that he would ntue to appear virile and pable of sexual terurse, albe wh men.

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.

WAS FRERICK THE GREAT GAY?

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. 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.

"Frerick the Great's reputatn as one of the world's most famo homosexuals seems secure. "This soldier, young, handsome, well ma, and who played the flute, served to enterta the prisoner more than one fashn, " the French wrer and philosopher Voltaire a personal letter, Voltaire would pare Frerick to the gay lover of ancient Bhynian kg Nies IV. But he had already repeatedly cshed their, spe Frerick's "greatns, " 's hard to see the Pssian kg beg a gay hero.

GAYT PLAC IN MARYLAND FOR 2020

But ultimately, he is remembered as a symbol of 18th-century nservatism — which self would be overthrown by the French Revolutn and a gay hero? But he was fely a great gay dron to AKs, high technology to low polics, War is Borg explor how and why we fight above, on, and below an angry world. 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.