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Top 10 Greatest gay men in history you did not know about

from http://www.livecitizen.com/2010/04/10-great-historical-gays/

1. Alexander the Great

Alexander III of Macedon (356–323 BC), popularly known as Alexander the Great.
Alexander the Great commanded his first battles while only sixteen years old and went on to conquer the entire known world.
The concept of homosexuality did not exist in Ancient Greece. Men in Ancient Greece had lovers of either gender and Alexander wasn’t an exception.

2. Socrates

Socrates (469–399 BC) was a Classical Greekphilosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known only through the classical accounts of his students.
Homosexuality was an important part of a boy’s education. It naturally makes his famous students Plato and Aristotle gay. Homosexuality was also used in the military to boost morale and a fighting spirit.

3. Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum

Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum (2400 B.C) were ancient Egyptian royal servants and are believed to be the first recorded same-sex couple in history.
They were found buried together embracing and holding hands in a tomb of the pyramid of King Unas.
They were close to the king, shared the title of Overseer of the Manicurists. These male “royal confidants” were depicted in artwork embracing and touching noses, the most intimate pose allowable in Egyptian funeral art.

4. King David of Israel

David (1040–970 BC) was the second king of the unitedKingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible.
After David defeated Goliath, according to the Bible, Jonathan already “loved him as his own soul.” He even made covenant with David and stripped himself and gave his robe, armor, sword, bow and bely to David. After Jonathan learned of his father’s plan to kill David, he went to David and they kissed each other. When Jonathan died, David even stated at his funeral that the love he and Jonathan shared was greater than what he had with women.

5. Nero

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (37 – 68 AD) was the fifth and last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
Nero was the first Roman emperor to have married a man. He has married two other men on different occasions. Nero “married a man named Sporus in a very public ceremony… with all the solemnities of matrimony, and lived with him as his spouse” A friend gave the “bride” away “as required by law.” . The marriage was celebrated separately in both Greece and Rome in extravagant public ceremonies.

6. Hadrian

Publius Aelius Hadrianus (76 –138 AD) was the fourteenth emperor of Rome from AD 117 to 138, as well as aStoic and Epicurean philosopher.
The story of Roman Emperor Hadrian and his young lover Antinous is like great epic film with power, romance, glory, beauty, tragedy, and love.
Hadrian unofficially took the throne in 117 AD, having been unceremoniously married to a 13-year-old girl decades earlier for political purposes. The much younger Antinous entered the emperor’s circle around 123 and by 128 was accompanying Hadrian as his closest confidant.

7. Richard the Lion Hearted of England

Richard I (1157 – 1199 AD) was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death in 1199. He was known as Cœur de Lion, or Richard the Lionheart because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior. In striking contrast with his father and King John his brother, he was a homosexual.
Richard’s unconventional sexual habits did not negate his primary duty as king: to marry and sire a male heir.

8. Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452 – 1519 AD), was an Italian polymath: painter, sculptor,architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer.
When Leonardo da Vinci was 24 years old, he was arrested on the charge of sodomy. He was constantly surrounded by beautiful men and raised several young protégés.
His sketches and writings indicate that he was indeed attracted to males.

9. Oda Nobunaga

Oda Nobunaga (1534 –1582 AD) was the initiator of the unification of Japan under the rule of the Shogun in the late Sixteenth Century.
Oda Nobunaga’s relationship with Mori Ranmaru is probably the most famous history of male-male relationships.
Mori Ranmaru had served him faithfully for many years and died with Nobunaga when he was still in his teens at the time.
Ranmaru’s loyalty and devotion to his lord were widely known and praised during the Edo period.

10. Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln (1809 –1865 AD) served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865.
Lincoln’s problematic and distant relationship with women stood in contrast to his more warm relations with a number of men in his life and that two of those relationships had arguable homosexual overtones.
Lincoln’s letters to Joshua Speed before and after Speed’s wedding in 1842 are as fretful as those of a general before a dubious engagement. Several of them are signed ”Yours forever.”