History is recorded by individual human beings with their own beliefs and interests guiding what they choose to record, and, as such, many events and details may be omitted from the account of a certain event or the story of a great person’s life. This is especially so when considering so-called “gay history”.

“Gay history”, of course, is just history which includes mention of an individual’s sexual orientation. Same-sex relationships were regarded as simply another expression of human sexuality in the cultures of ancient civilizations and were not considered “shameful” or “sinful” until after the rise of Christianity, which condemned such relationships, not because they were “wrong” but because they were associated with other belief systems and practices.

Miguel Hermoso Cuesta (CC BY-SA)

Although it has been claimed that there is little evidence to positively identify figures of the past as gay or lesbian, this fact in itself argues for how easily same-sex relationships were accepted, as though they were not even worth noting. Earlier historians do make mention of some people’s gender preferences while biographies of men like Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar written in the Common Era downplay or ignore that aspect. Historian Lee Wind comments:

History sounds really official. Like it’s all fact. Like it’s what happened. But that’s not necessarily true. History was crafted by the people who recorded it. Imagine you got into a fight at school. Afterward, there will be different versions of what happened. You’ll have your story, the other kid will have their story, and a third person, who maybe saw the fight happen, will have a third story. Whose story will the principal believe? Which version will become the official story, the history, of that moment? What if that third person doesn’t like you? What if that third person is your best friend? What if your fight was with the principal’s kid? Whose story will become history now? (8)

Wind’s observation applies to historical accounts generally but certainly to some of the couples below. In these cases, there is enough textual evidence to suggest that some were probably gay, and others certainly were. The first two couples come from Greek literature and mythology and so are not historical but do suggest the paradigm of widespread acceptance of same-sex relationships without any hint of prejudice or judgment. Homer, in his depiction of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, does not explicitly present them as gay but provides enough context clues that, by the 4th and 5th century BCE, writers regarded them as such.

Sexual relations with people of both genders or, in some cultures, a third gender was simply considered sex.

In the same way, Alexander the Great and Hephaestion have been characterized as “close friends” by scholars and historians while primary sources strongly suggest they were lovers. In the case of Sappho of Lesbos, it could well be she was assuming a persona in her poetry, but ancient writers understood her as a lesbian and she inspired the terms “sapphic” and “lesbian” as regarding feminine homosexuality. The others on the list leave no doubt as to their sexual orientation and preference.