I WAS talking with a high school student about George Washington the other day. We were discussing the first president’s character and life as described in Richard Brookhiser’s biography of Washington, Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington, a book which the student is reading.

The student said matter-of-factly, “The good thing about George Washington is that no one says he was homosexual.”

I said, “But you have never heard that Jefferson or Franklin or Lincoln were homosexual!”

He said, “There are a whole lot of people who say Jefferson and Lincoln were.”

“Lincoln!?” I said. “Jefferson! But that’s ridiculous. How could anyone make such a claim and prove it?”  The student patiently explained to me that scholars were arguing just that. These theories are very suspect in many cases, he said. The theories about Alexander the Great, in contrast, are convincing. Alexander slept with all (not some, but all) of his military advisers.

                                                                        — Comments —

Van Wijk writes:

I’ve also heard the theory that Jefferson, Lincoln, Franklin, and pretty much all the Kings of Europe were closeted homosexuals. I’ve also heard the theory that Jesus was Negroid. I’m a student of military history, and you cannot pick up a book about Alexander that doesn’t have at least one allusion to how “great” he was, if you take my meaning. People will believe anything if it provides a stick with which to beat dead white people and their descendants.

Laura writes:

So you have heard that Jefferson and Lincoln were homosexual too!? Staggering. That just seems so preposterous. To venture into speculation about revered political figures seems to be transgression on a whole different level. Since none of it can be absolutely proved, a historian should need serious evidence before he could make any claims of homosexual affairs or tendencies.

Van Wijk adds:

Of course it’s all preposterous. I don’t think most of the leftists who propagate these theories (to include a handful of the original theorists) actually believe that Jefferson and Lincoln were homosexuals. I think that these theories represent a bad faith attempt to paint our heroes pink in order to further undermine our history. If they can turn Thomas Jefferson into a “queer,” then no conservative can ever quote him again without making a de facto pro-homosexual statement, or at the very least bind the rumor to Jefferson’s good name forever. Socially, the left is prosecuting total war against us.

I’ve not heard anything on Washington as yet. Perhaps the left believes they have him well nailed-down with the slavery issue.

I was rereading Wiki’s article on the Battle of Chaeronea today when it struck me that I had, in fact, read a biography of Alexander that minimized his alleged homosexuality. It is Alexander the Great and His Time by Agnes Savill. It’s been a few years since I’ve read it, so she may have actually neglected the homosexual angle entirely. My only critique is that the author is sometimes a little too pro-Alexander (and I am fairly pro-Alexander), but otherwise I think it paints a fair picture and avoids the two extremes that seem to make up the bulk of the man’s biographies: bloodstained sociopath vs. enthusiastic sodomite. 

Lawrence Auster writes:

Van Wijk claims that it’s just as absurd to say that Alexander the Great was homosexual as to say that George Washington was. But of course Alexander was homosexual, attested to by the biographers and historians of his time and afterward. There is no question about that. 

I’m curious to know where Van Wijk gets the idea that Alexander was not homosexual.

Van Wijk writes:

Lawrence Auster wrote: “Van Wijk claims that it’s just as absurd to say that Alexander the Great was homosexual as to say that George Washington was. But of course Alexander was homosexual, attested to by the biographers and historians of his time and afterward. There is no question about that.”

Actually, I claimed no such thing. I think it is possible that Alexander had homosexual relations, but it is by no means certain. I do, however, think that both the phenomenon of homosexuality and it’s acceptance in ancient Greece have been overstated, particularly when it comes to armies. Take this passage from Greek Hoplite: 480-323 BC by Nicholas Sekunda:

“We hear that in many states ephebes were adopted by older young men who had completed their military training, but who were still regularly training in the gymnasia. The system might be compared to the ‘buddy’ system worked by many modern armies, where a young soldier is adopted by an experienced one, who teaches him the tricks of the trade, shares his trench, etc. In ancient Greek these pairs are called ‘lovers’ which has given rise to much confusion among modern scholars. It is clear that the word is not to be taken in its carnal sense, and sexual contact between these pairs of ‘lovers’ was frowned upon. For example Xenophon (Lak. Pol. 2. 13) states that in Sparta sexual relations between ‘lovers’ was banned.”

I believe either Polybius or Tacitus would later state that the penalty for homosexual acts among the legionaries was death; the penalty in Sparta was probably the same. If homosexuality were as widespread in ancient armies as we’ve been led to believe, those armies would have fallen prey to many of the same problems that plague the integrated modern military: rampant sexual jealousy and a decline in esprit de corps and the morale and cohesion of the unit.

Mr. Auster wrote: “I’m curious to know where Van Wijk gets the idea that Alexander was not homosexual.”

Better to ask where Mr. Auster got the idea that contemporary historians absolutely, positively marked Alexander as a homosexual. From Wiki’s article under Personal Relationships: “Alexander’s sexuality has been the subject of speculation and controversy. Nowhere in the ancient sources is it stated that Alexander had homosexual relationships, or that Alexander’s relationship with Hephaestion was sexual.” The story (or rumor) that the man copulated with his entire general staff is not found in the Wiki article or any other biography of Alexander that I have read.

Laura writes:

My understanding was that Plutarch described Alexander’s homosexual experience, but I will check on that.

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