Who is the first public person, world figure or American to come out of the closet and declare he or she is gay?
And in what year ?
[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman]
Who is the first public person, world figure or American to come out of the closet and declare he or she is gay?
And in what year ?
[/QUOTE]
Tou mean in all of history? World figure covers a lot of territory.
yes
[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman]
Who is the first public person, world figure or American to come out of the closet and declare he or she is gay?
[/QUOTE]
Are these three really mutually exclusive?
The definition of “out” is a little slippery too. There hasn’t always been a closet. Homosexuality was a fairly open practice in much of the ancient world.
For a publicly “out” celebrity in the contemorary sense, maybe Truman Capote?
Sappho?
Or Oscar Wilde.
I’m looking for a well known American or non American whichever comes first.
I don’t t think “gay” (as we define the modern concept) existed until relatively recently. Before that you were a “sodomite” or something else fairly pejorative.
[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman]
I’m looking for a well known American or non American whichever comes first.
[/QUOTE]
Why bother distinguishing between them?
I’ll try Plato.
[QUOTE=jjimm]
Why bother distinguishing between them?
I’ll try Plato.
[/QUOTE]
Didn’t Plato later condemn homosexuality as unnatural later on in their lives?
[QUOTE=FormerMarineGuy]
Didn’t Plato later condemn homosexuality as unnatural later on in their lives?
[/QUOTE]
Actually, your answer of Sappho predates Plato anyway. I think you may be the winner.
[QUOTE=FormerMarineGuy]
Didn’t Plato later condemn homosexuality as unnatural later on in their lives?
[/QUOTE]
Plato and Xenophon certainly both described the, umm, master/pupil intimate relationship in a fashion that was not wholly unapproving. I don’t have the books handy to dig up passages though.
If you’d accept a 19th century Irishman, then Oscar Wilde is your man.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
Actually, your answer of Sappho predates Plato anyway. I think you may be the winner.
[/QUOTE]
And what could the prize possibly be?
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
Actually, your answer of Sappho predates Plato anyway. I think you may be the winner.
[/QUOTE]
The OP wonders about closets. I think Wilde may well be the chap, at least in the western world.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
Actually, your answer of Sappho predates Plato anyway. I think you may be the winner.
[/QUOTE]
Per this article. When Socrates was executed for corrupting the youth of Athens were they referring purely o his teachings, or also to his homosexuality?
[QUOTE=Struan]
The OP wonders about closets. I think Wilde may well be the chap, at least in the western world.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, in the modern sense of “out of the closet,” I can’t think of anyone before Wilde. There were some writers like Whitman and Melville but I don’t know how “out” they were at the time.
[QUOTE=Struan]
The OP wonders about closets. I think Wilde may well be the chap, at least in the western world.
[/QUOTE]
Does Wilde actually count? Wilde was “out” as bisexual because he was pretty much forced out, with the ill-advised libel case against the Marquis of Queensberry and the gross indecency trial.
What does the OP actually mean by coming out of the closet? I don’t think some of the subjects from years ago actually used the term ‘to come out of the closet’, but basically did come out, in some form or another. If it is made public at one point in their life they were gay/homosexual/lesbian, does that not count as coming out?
[QUOTE=FormerMarineGuy]
What does the OP actually mean by coming out of the closet? I don’t think some of the subjects from years ago actually used the term ‘to come out of the closet’, but basically did come out, in some form or another. If it is made public at one point in their life they were gay/homosexual/lesbian, does that not count as coming out?
[/QUOTE]
I meant voluntarily.