Historical Figures We Never Realized Were LGBTQ

Eleanor Roosevelt was the wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and, without a doubt, one of the most influential first ladies in history. She has been credited with helping run the White House behind the scenes during the 1920s when America was embroiled in the Great Depression. We now know that she was also bisexual and had several partners who were women. Today, a cottage she built is listed with the National Park Service as an important LGTQ historic site. 
 

Jane Addams was an important activist and suffragist who also happened to be a lesbian. She was truly a pioneer during her time, and she led the charge for a number of women’s rights issues. During the latter stages of her life, she lived at the home for immigrants she founded in Chicago, called Hull House. It was here that she spent the last years of her life with a woman named, Mary Rozet Smith.

 

Gertrude Stein was a literary giant and hosted some of the early 20th century’s most famous figures and artists at her place in Paris. During that time, she was also in a relationship with a woman named Alice B. Toklas. The two were very open about their relationship during their time. After the Nazis occupied France, they were forced to flee to the countryside, being both homosexual and Gertrude being Jewish. 

 

Despite his early death, actor James Dean very much lives on as a cultural icon. He’s mostly remembered today for his devilish good looks and some of the macho roles he took driving sports cars. However, there is also some suspicion that he may have been bisexual. This suspicion comes from a question he was once asked by a reporter. The journalist asked him about his sexuality and if he was gay. 

 

Not many are as familiar with the name Greta Garbo today, but she was a big deal when films were still played without sound. She never married and retired fairly early, leaving Hollywood and the cameras behind. She once played a lesbian on the screen, which was no doubt one of, if not the first, portrayal of a gay woman in cinema, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that historians began to look back on her life. 

 

If you’re a fan of WWII history, then you’ve no doubt heard of Alan Turing. He helped break the Nazi codes, which many say led to the war being won two years ahead of schedule. This no doubt saved hundreds of thousands of lives if not many more. However, after the war, Alan’s homosexuality was found out and he was eventually arrested and forced to choose between hormone treatments and prison.

 

Like Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci was one of those historical figures who became incredibly famous but for which we know surprisingly little about their life in detail. What we do know is that most historians and biographers now think it was very likely that Leonardo was gay. He was accused of sodomy twice during his life, and some even think that the Mona Lisa is actually a combination of both male and female models. 

 

The U.S. has never officially had a gay president, but some think it may have unofficially had one in former President James Buchanan. The former president was the first and only not to be married, which has certainly contributed to the rumors. However, so did his relationship with the Alabama senator William Rufus King. The two were very close, but scholars still debate just how close. The actual evidence is scant.

 

Poet Walt Whitman is one of America’s most celebrated wordsmiths. However, when he released Leaves of Grass and introduced America to a new form of poetry, not everyone was celebrating. Some of the scenes he wrote about in his book were critiqued for being homoerotic. The poet never came out and identified LGBTQ, but many suspect that it’s likely he was bisexual at the very least. Apart from allusions in his poetry, stories from contemporaries have been used as evidence of his sexuality. 

 

The early Greeks and Romans had very different cultural opinions about homosexuality than the modern world. It was much less frowned upon back then than it has been over the last 500 or so years. Hadrian, probably one of the most famous Roman emperors to ever live, was known to write homoerotic poetry about some of the men in his life, including one named Antinous. The two spent a lot of time together. 

 

Actor Laurence Olivier was one of the most renowned actors of his time. After his death, his wife came out and said that he had multiple affairs with men and women, which was also detailed in several biographies released after he passed away. Today, it’s known that he was a bisexual. Actors Marlon Brando and Henry Ainley are just some of the men he was rumored to have been with.

 

Ancient Greeks and Romans were very open about homosexuality and it was fairly common for someone to be openly bisexual during Socrates’s time. Plato wrote a lot about his former teacher’s relationships with other men, and he even reportedly said that true love was possible only when it involved two men. Some historians have said that Plato’s words should be taken with a grain of salt, but there’s no denying that homosexuality was indeed viewed very differently in ancient Greece.

 

Rock star Lou Reed has been very open about being bisexual throughout his career. He has also said that his parents forced him to endure electroshock therapy in a bit to “cure” him. However, his sister has denied this ever happened and said he only had treatment for mental illness. Reportedly, he has had relationships with David Bowie and Billy Name, although none of these have been confirmed for certain.

 

Singer Lesley Gore never actually came out in public as lesbian, but she said that for years, she simply lived life how she wanted behind the scenes. “I just kind of lived my life naturally and did what I wanted to do… I didn’t avoid anything, I didn’t put it in anybody’s face,” Lesley has said. However, she did openly advocate for LGBTQ rights right up until she passed away in 2015. 

 

Like the preceding centuries before it, the early 20th century was a hard time to be LGBTQ. That may be why playwright and director Noel Coward never officially came out while he was alive. However, he told those who were close to him that they could reveal he was gay after his death in 1973. He was asked many times when he was alive, but he always seemed to have a witty response that neither confirmed nor denied. 

 

Like many others on this list, Cesar Romero elected to keep his sexual orientation a secret when he was alive. He’s probably best remembered for his portrayal of the Joker during the 1966 series Batman. However, after he passed away, a reporter who’d recorded an earlier interview with him informed the world that Cesar had admitted to being gay during an interview. That interview, and others, were combined in a book called, Hollywood Gays. 

Oscar Wilde is both a literary icon and probably one of the most well-known historical LGBTQ icons. He was accused of being homosexual after taking his partner’s dad to court. The subsequent trial (homosexuality was still illegal in Britain at the time) led to him having to serve hard labor for two years. Today, it’s thought the prison time contributed to his death a couple of years after his release. 

 

Actor Marlon Brando was long seen as a sort of macho man of Hollywood. So, a lot of people were probably shocked when he said this in 1976: “Homosexuality is so much in fashion, it no longer makes news. Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed.” Today, we know that Marlon was bisexual and that he had relationships with both men and women. 

 

When astronaut Sally Ride rocketed into space in 1983, she did so as the first American woman. Unbeknownst to just about everyone else, she also did so as the first lesbian. After she passed away, her partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, told the world that the two had been in a 27-year relationship. After she passed away, her sister attributed her decision not to talk publically about her sexual orientation to the fact that she was an extremely private person.

 

The exploits of Richard the Lionheart are pretty legendary today. This is both because of his tactical genius on the battlefield and his willingness to lead from the front, earning him a reputation as being one of the last warrior kings. However, not many know that some historians also suspect he may have been either gay or bisexual. This stems from his close friendship with King Phillip II of France. 

 

If you’re a fan of Monty Python then you’ve likely heard of Graham Chapman. Not only was he immensely famous for his roles in the renowned comedy skits, but he was also one of the most famous gay men in Britain. After coming out, he spent years advocating for LGBTQ rights and even helped found Gay News, which focused on LGBTQ rights. Graham was with his partner David Sherlock until he passed away in 1989.

 

Actor Anthony Perkins never came out when he was alive and reportedly struggled with his homosexuality when he was younger. However, he did have many affairs with men when he was still alive. Anthony is probably most remembered for his portrayal in the classic film, Psycho. He passed away after a long fight with HIV, although the illness was initially kept hidden from the public as it was with many others during that period. 

 

Both Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert were enveloped in rumors about their sexual orientations throughout their careers. The two starred in It Happened One Night, an early Hollywood hit that picked up several Academy Awards after it was released. Both actors had been married multiple times, but Clark’s biographer claimed that he did sexual favors for men when he was starting out in order to climb the Hollywood ladder. 

 

One of the most talked about “lavender marriages” in Hollywood used to be between Adrian Adolph Greenburg and Janet Gaynor. Adrian was a costume designer and worked on The Wizard of Oz, among many others. They went on to have a child, who has stated that the marriage was very much real. However, Adrian was openly bisexual or gay in his private life, and it was somewhat of an open secret throughout Hollywood. 

 

It’s not known for certain if Barbara Stanwyck was bisexual or gay, but there have certainly been rumors surrounding her sexuality since her time in Hollywood. It’s suspected that both of her marriages were set up by Hollywood execs to quell those rumors. One of her biographers said that she was “Hollywood’s biggest closeted lesbian.” A couple of other actresses claimed to have relationships with Barbara, and then there is the case of her famous interview.

 

People have long speculated that Cary Grant may have been gay or bisexual. His daughter and one of his wives have said that he was straight, but a 2016 documentary claimed that he lived with a costume designer, Orry-Kelly, and that the two had a sexual relationship. It also claimed that he spent some time as a male escort after getting kicked out of his place due to a failure to pay rent. 

 

Cary Grant and Randolph Scott spent quite a while as roommates, and they would go on to room together for over a decade as their marriages failed one after another. Like Cary, nothing ever came out that proved 100% that Randolph was gay or bisexual, but there were rumors and the word of a Holywood pimp named Scotty Bowers. Scotty claimed to hook them both up with male prostitutes on more than one occasion. 

 

Famous actor Dirk Bogarde’s portrayal of a gay man being blackmailed and threatened with jail time in the 1961 movie Victim went on to help get rid of anti-LGBTQ laws in the U.K. The role had reportedly been turned down by several actors before Dirk picked it up. Not only that, but he was living with his partner at the time and very much in danger of being prosecuted under anti-LGBTq legislation. 

 

Director Dorothy Arzner was openly lesbian during the early days of cinema, and she would reportedly dress in masculine clothing and sprinkle LGBTQ undertones throughout her work. Despite Hollywood and the public’s disdain for LGBTQ issues at the time, she went on to have a highly successful career. She directed Paramount’s first film with sound and then directed a film nearly every year before she eventually retired from the industry.

 

Not many people have heard of George Cukor, but he was a very influential director during the early days of cinema, and he was even slated to direct Gone With The Wind before an actor raised an issue with working under him. George was often referred to by others as “the woman’s director” because of the good relationship he shared with the actresses that he worked with on sets. 

 

A law making it perfectly legal to be LGBTQ in the U.K. wasn’t passed into law until 1967. Still, that didn’t stop Ivor Novello, who was from Wales, from being open about his sexuality. Later, his biographer said that he, the actor, was “never, on or off the set, especially shy about his homosexual life.” This led some to accuse the authorities of ignoring the laws at the time. 

 

Another famous couple who were reportedly in a fake marriage were Jean Acker and Rudolph Valentino. At first, both actors seemed ready to enter into this marriage of convenience. Jean wanted to get rid of rumors about her being a lesbian, and it’s thought that Rudolph, who himself was gay, maybe wanted to piggyback off Jean’s fame. However, things quickly went south, and the two started arguing nearly as soon as they said, “I do.”

 

Not many in Hollywood can claim to be as legendary as Joan Crawford. The actress made a name for herself during the golden age of cinema, and her career included countless awards and starring roles in dozens of movies. While most of the rumors at the time focused on her relationships with men, it’s thought that she may have enjoyed the company of a couple of famous women, as well. 

 

Katherine Hepburn is another incredibly famous movie star who is thought to have possibly been lesbian or bisexual. The rumors stem from a couple of recent documentaries and comments from Hollywood pimp Scotty Bowers, who said that she once asked him to find a “nice young dark-haired girl for me.” He’s gone on to say that he probably found around 150 women for her over the span of some four decades. 

 

With so many different names on this list, it might seem like being LGBTQ in Hollywood was fine so long as it was strictly behind closed doors. However, that definitely wasn’t the case, and it didn’t take much for the studios to take away everything if they suspected you of being LGBTQ. Lizabeth Scott was an up-and-coming actress when an expose on her alleged sexual orientation derailed her career. 

 

Stories about Marilyn Monroe’s personal life are often characterized by the men she married and dated. However, it’s thought that she may have been a lesbian or bisexual. However, in recent years, those closest to her say she questioned her own sexuality, and former husband Joe DiMaggio reportedly told a friend that Marilyn would rather be with women. Some of the women she allegedly dated have also come out and talked about their relationships with the star.