ABSTRACT
Political history is source for the names of homosexuals. Few people publicly declared themselves as homosexual; in fact the term was not even coined until the nineteenth century. Thus the historian who wants to investigate homosexuals of the past has to follow all kinds of clues, weigh them, and then decide. Still, poems, fictional accounts, and autobiographies are probably the richest source of data, but this also means that any listing of homosexuals is weighted with literary persons. Homosexuals have been competent rulers such as Monsieur or Eugene of Savoy, and probably also incompetent; and they have been writers, musicians, dancers, poets, industrialists, economists, historians, and philosophers, as well as athletes, such as Dave Kopay, actors, actresses, and even fathers and mothers. In the case of John Edgar Hoover, the fact that he was a bachelor with strong attachment to one particular close male friend has been enough to fan the rumors.
