Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, two male royal servants in Egypt.
Thirteen out of the first fourteen Roman Emperors were bisexual or gay.
Nero married a man called Pythagoras and then a man called Sporus.
The emperor Elagabalus married a male athlete named Hierocles.
Nero married a man called Pythagoras and then a man called Sporus.
The emperor Elagabalus married a male athlete named Hierocles.
"Religious reformers railed from the pulpit against the crime of sodomy, so ubiquitous in Florence that an estimated two-thirds of the male population had engaged in it..."
Matthew D. Johnson at www.glbtq.com - http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/mediterranean_homosexuality,2.html
The late shah of Iran was reported to be bisexual.
'There were reports that a close male friend of the shah from Switzerland, a man who knew him from their student days in that country, routinely visited him.' (The Persian Vice)
Prime minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda was said to have been a homosexual. (Cached)
And then there are the stories about the Ayatollah and boys.....
In the early 17th century, Thomas Herbert was secretary to the English ambassador to Persia (Iran).
Herbert reported that at the court of Shah Abbas he saw, "Ganymede boys in vests of gold, rich bespangled turbans, and choice sandals, their curled hair dangling about their shoulders, with rolling eyes and vermilion cheeks." (Wikipedia, the ...)
John Chardin travelled through Persia at this time.
He reported that there were many boys available for sex, but no women.
John Fryer, who traveled to Persia in the late seventeenth century, was of the opinion that "The Persians, when they let go their modesty... covet boys as much as women."
In the late nineteenth century Richard Francis Burton referred to Central Asian pederasty as "the Persian vice."
Napoleon and Tristan Montholon
Historian Chhristopher Hibbert describes a Napoleon who announces that he feels physical attraction to handsome men "in the loins and in another place which shall be nameless".
Napoleon promoted attractive young men.
Hibbert suggests that the effeminate Chevalier de Sainte Croix may have been Napoleon's lover.
Napoleon is also accused of fancying his servants, Louis Constant and Roustam Raza.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2151239/Historys-hidden-gay-couples-outlaw-marriages-helped-Americas-greatest-minds-reach-new-heights.html#ixzz1wEXiZ3NJ
Gertrude Stein went with Alice B Toklas.
"He was extremely confused when he fell in love with a boy."
In Chapter 11 of The memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt by Casanova, we read:
One of the two boys... was remarkably handsome and might have been seventeen. I thought he was a ‘castrato’ who, as is the custom in Rome, performed all the parts of a prima donna. The mother presented ... her other son, likewise very good-looking, but more manly than the ‘castrato’, although younger. His name was Petronio...
“Nevertheless, he is a boy, for he has had to be examined before he could sing on the stage here.”
“And who examined him?”
“My lord bishop’s chaplain.”
“A chaplain?”
“Yes, and you may satisfy yourself by enquiring from him.”
“The only way to clear my doubts would be to examine him myself.”
“You may, if he has no objection, but truly I cannot interfere, as I do not know what your intentions are.”
“They are quite natural.”
"Behind every great man there is a great... man?"
Streimatter refers to various gay celebrities, including Tennessee Williams whose mate was a truck driver called Frank Merlo.
Walt Whitman's pal was Peter Doyle.
Greta Garbo's lover was Mercedes de Acosta.
Gertrude Stein went with Alice B Toklas.
Ismail Merchant and James Ivory were the partners who made A Room with a View and Howards End.
Casanova
Let's not forget Casanova, who took part in sexual acts with males, "and without complaint".
"He was extremely confused when he fell in love with a boy."
In Chapter 11 of The memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt by Casanova, we read:
One of the two boys... was remarkably handsome and might have been seventeen. I thought he was a ‘castrato’ who, as is the custom in Rome, performed all the parts of a prima donna. The mother presented ... her other son, likewise very good-looking, but more manly than the ‘castrato’, although younger. His name was Petronio...
“Nevertheless, he is a boy, for he has had to be examined before he could sing on the stage here.”
“And who examined him?”
“My lord bishop’s chaplain.”
“A chaplain?”
“Yes, and you may satisfy yourself by enquiring from him.”
“The only way to clear my doubts would be to examine him myself.”
“You may, if he has no objection, but truly I cannot interfere, as I do not know what your intentions are.”
“They are quite natural.”
I returned to my room and sent Petronio for a bottle of Cyprus wine. He brought the wine and seven sequins, the change for the doubloon I had given him. I divided them between Bellino, Cecilia and Marina, and begged the two young girls to leave me alone with their brother.
“Bellino, I am certain that your natural conformation is different from mine; my dear, you are a girl.”
“I am a man, but a castrato; I have been examined.”
“Allow me to examine you likewise, and I will give you a doubloon.”
“I cannot, for it is evident that you love me, and such love is condemned by religion.”
“You did not raise these objections with the bishop’s chaplain.”
“He was an elderly priest, and besides, he only just glanced at me.”
“I will know the truth,” said I, extending my hand boldly.
But he repulsed me and rose from his chair. His obstinacy vexed me, for I had already spent fifteen or sixteen sequins to satisfy my curiosity.
John Masters, in his book Casanova , 1969:
"A page of notes in his handwriting, found among his papers, contains the following notes, as though for chapter headings:
Mes amours avec Camille (en prison); Pédérastie avec X. à Dunquerque..."
Prof. Luna on p. 70 of her book:
"One thing is certain: three specific allusions to homosexual relations were censured at the time of Casanova's final revision of the Memoirs: 'My love for the Duke of Elbouef's fancy boy' (an episode which should probably be situated in volume 5, in the vicinity of p. 254 of the Brockhaus-Plon edition) -- 'Pederasty with * in Dunkirk' (also in the fifth volume) - 'Pederasty with Bazin and his sisters' (Marr 31-61).
"Perhaps one should also add to this series the note on 'the ring in Etorière's underpants' (Marr 16 k 45), which was also cut; it is well-known that in vol. 4 (p.49), where Casanova is in love with the beautiful M.M., he compares her to Antinoos and to Etorière whom he had 'met in Paris,' and who had a reputation as 'one of the handsomest men in Paris.'"
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