Otto Mas brings 17 characters who have marked universal history out of the closet in a book published by Plan B
In his book “Great queers of history", Alvaro J. Sanjuan brings to light the homosexuality of characters as prominent as Miguel de Cervantes, George Washington, Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Hans Christian Andersen, Alexander the Great or Francis of Assisi. "They were part of the privileged elite and this freed them from being able to end up at the stake”, assures the author, better known in networks such as Otto More, who started the idea with the homonymous podcast that he is now launching in book format.
These biographies bring to light the sexual orientation of 17 men whose homosexuality did not transcend until the middle of the last century. That Miguel de Cervantes was a converted Jew it was not known until the middle of the twentieth century, but it was alsobisexual or homosexual” is something that was not made public until then because, had it been known, it would have been “sentenced to death".
"Although his contemporaries knew about it, it was lost in history because it was not convenient for great characters like Leonardo Da Vinci they were queers, and it is not until the XNUMXth century when we know this information through his letters and other documents that indicate that he was homosexual", Assures San Juan.
Offer references
First with a blog, then with threads of Twitter and later, in a pandemic, with a successful podcast also called "Great queers of history", which has just released its third season with Gloria Fuertes as protagonist. Now it reaches bookstores also converted into a book that aims, as in the previous steps but differently, «offer references» of the LGTBIQ+ collective.
The ultimate goal of this entire project is to get people out of the closet who «he was homosexual and whose sexuality was hidden because it was politically incorrect, he did not want it to be known or because from the point of view of the prevailing religion it could not be«. «It must be taken into account that none of the great homosexuals of the past could leave their condition in writing because it would be a guarantee of the death penalty.«, adds.
hidden biographies
With the objective of "out of the closet” to referents for the homosexual group, San Juan reviews the biographies of characters such as Michelangelo, whose great-nephew changed the gender of the protagonists of his great-uncle's poems. Or explain how the destruction “premeditated” of documents has hidden from history until the second half of the last century the homosexuality of the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen or the first president of the United States, George Washington.
«Being homosexual imprints character because in the past they had to constantly hide. The fact of being homosexual influences the life of all homosexuals when you are persecuted. It influences your way of seeing and facing things and reflecting reality«, Argues.
It is necessary to mention their sexuality so that the group has references when they study from a young age and do not feel the only people LGTBIQ + of the world, which is what has been happening in our collective since time immemorial, concludes the author.
We are already attentive to the edition of “Great Bolleras de la Historia”!