# First high profile homosexual ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 13, 2006, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-high-profile-homosexual/380310 "2006-11-13T22:18:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-high-profile-homosexual/380310/81 "2006-11-19T05:46:04Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Slant] If complaining about marriage makes one an introvert, I’d submit there are more of teh gays out there than I’d previously thought. [/QUOTE] What does being introverted have to do with being gay? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-high-profile-homosexual/380310/82 "2006-11-19T06:59:37Z")
[QUOTE=Scribble] Socrates was married, but he wasn’t too happy about it. He said a lot of things about marriage that weren’t too complimentary. [/QUOTE] Well, hell, I do that. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Tartuffe52](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tartuffe52](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tartuffe52)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-high-profile-homosexual/380310/83 "2006-11-19T10:44:58Z")
[QUOTE=Valteron] Hence the origin of “frottage cheese”, discovered by some uncircumcised Greek lads who were not careful about under-the-hood cleaning. It was later marketed as “cottage cheese” to make it more saleable. 😉 [/QUOTE] EEEEEEEEEwwwwwwwwww!!! ---
**Author:** ![Tartuffe52](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tartuffe52](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tartuffe52)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-high-profile-homosexual/380310/84 "2006-11-19T10:51:38Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] Well, a few candidates for the list, depending on how you choose to define “gay” in terms of anachronistic usages: **Edward II** , King of England – made no secret of his preference for Piers Gaveston and, later, the younger Hugh Despenser, although married to Isabelle de France for diplomatic/political and heir-begetting reasons. **Richard I the Lionhearted** , King of England – supposedly an open secret that his tastes ran to men, although he did contract a childless (and apocryphally unconsummated) marriage to Berengaria of Navarre. **William II Rufus** , King of England – the Conqueror’s son likewise had a reputation as having a taste for male/male sex. **Hadrian** , Emperor of Rome – the love of his life was Alcinoos, who drowned in the Nile and for whom he grieved. I’ve never been able to re-pin down a reference I once saw to them actually contracting marriage. **Alexander II the Great** , King of Macedonia – apparently he liked sex of any sort but preferred it with men or adolescent boys. **Amenhotep IV (Akhnaten)**, Pharaoh of Egypt – the great monotheistic reformer was evidently bisexual, the two deep loves of his life being his queen Nefertiti and his half-brother and lover Smenkhkare. [/QUOTE] Frederick the 2nd or Prussia circa 1750 was supposed to have had all male orgies in his palace.. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-high-profile-homosexual/380310/85 "2006-11-20T01:58:35Z")
[QUOTE=Scribble] Socrates was married, but he wasn’t too happy about it. He said a lot of things about marriage that weren’t too complimentary. [/QUOTE] And now that I’ve gotten my smart-mouthed response to this out of my system, I should point out that Socrates didn’t leave any writings, so virtually anything you find that’s something ‘Socrates said’ is actually something that Plato _said_ that Socrates said. And Plato was gay to the point that even the ancient Greeks found it a bit odd, which means ‘pretty damn gay’. And, especially when he was writing stuff decades after Socrates was executed, didn’t seem to have many compunctions about putting his own words in Socrates’ mouth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-high-profile-homosexual/380310.md?page=4)