SHAKES-QUEER? New Evidence Emerges to Prove William Shakespeare may be Gay

Ananova Breaking News Wire and the London Daily Sun ^ | Monday, April 22, 2002 00:14 GMT | What Tomorrow's Newspapers Say Staff

[Physicist]

I do believe Shakespeare might have written this:

Or not.

[BradyLS]

Lincoln, Robin Hood..who next?

Don't you know the rule about historical figures? Once the autobiographocal gold has been mined by the first few generations of scholars, the late-comers "discover" that they were either gay, consumed by an STD, or were at the very least engaged in adulterous affairs.

[DainBramage]

although he was a thespian when he was younger.

LOL

[TheHound]

It just toasts me that people find some kind of satisfaction out of trying to explain the motivations of long dead famous people, especially so, when it is one of the poeple I most respect. We can't even agree on what he wrote or what he stole, but we now feel confident in espousing his sexual orientation. His ability to describe the universal human condition defies anyones attempt to define him; because you must use his own writings which were made to describe to you your condition, to describe him. Good luck.

[tet68]

A poetical interlude.
Something from the War poets I think.

"Maundy Thursday" Wilfred Owen.

Between the brown hands of a server lad,
The silver cross was offered to be kissed.
The men came up, lugubrious, but not sad,
And knelt reluctantly, half-prejudiced.
( and kissing, kissed the emblem of a creed.)
The mourning women knelt; meek mouths they had.
(And kissed the body of Christ indeed.)
The young children came, with eager lips and glad.
(These kissed a silver doll, immensely bright.)
Then I too knelt before that Acolyte.
Above the crucifix I bent my head:
The Christ was thin, and cold, and very dead:
And yet I bowed, yea, kissed - my lips did cling
I kissed the warm live hand that held the thing.

[aristeides]

I thought I was saying his sexual orientation doesn't particularly matter. Where do we disagree?

[Joe Boucher]

There is a war going on, who cares if Bill was a fag?

[TheHound]

That was written to agree with your comment 11. For your others I reserve comment.

[Gaston]

There is a war going on, who cares if Bill was a fag?

Don't ask don't tell.

[glorygirl]

This discussion has been around forever.

Here is one webpage from 1997 with some specifics, and other questions.

[Kevin Curry]

Such salacious garbage is vitally important to the pro-buggery set.

The fact that the Bard is quite possibly the greatest writer of the Enlgish language ever to have lived is not nearly as important to these twits as the tenuous possibility that he got perverse satisfaction from rear-ending other men.

[DouglasKC]

I think there are full time academics calling each other like Oprah's book club..what historical figure should we 'make gay' this month..

lol...at the rate everyone in the past is supposedly turning out to be gay it's a miracle that we're even alive today.

[Skooz]

That's right, everyone who ever lived, is living, and will live in the future is a homo.

Unless they were bad or ignoble people.

Stalin, Rasputin, the Zodiac Killer, Genghis Khan, Vlad the Impaler, Ivan Grozny, Judas, Quisling, Hitler, Pol Pot, Nero, Cesare Borgia, and Tiglath-Pileser will never be gay.

Clara Barton, Rembrandt, St Francis, Julius Caser, Hannibal, Alexander the Great, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Winston Churchill should be gay any day now.

[glorygirl]

"Alexander the Great ... should be gay any day now."

Already been done.Look here

To quote:

"So, these caveats made, let me turn to the question of Alexander. Was Alexander the Great gay?

No. I say no, not because he had no relationships with men and boys but because our term "homosexual" and "gay" are inappropriate terms for antiquity. Some may feel this to be splitting hairs. It is not. Language shapes us. It shapes the way we see the world. The ancient Greeks had no word which corresponded to our "homosexual"--hence my preference for "homoerotic." The ancients viewed one's choice of bedpartner as a choice--not a reflection of deepseated psychological preferences. In this respect, they were someone more blasé about it all than we are today."

[glorygirl]

Also (allegedly) from "Famous Quotes the History Books Missed"

"I once went to bed with a man to see what it was like."

--Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, British prime minister

[glorygirl]

More here

"Disney recently bought Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion. On March 19, ABC aired a Dana Carvey Show program which featured jokes and laughter about alcohol abuse and cocaine addiction. The same show had Carvey portray George Washington using cocaine and Ben Franklin in bed with another man."