herschko@newton.Berkeley.EDU (Stephen Jay Herschkorn) (08/22/87)
In continuation of a discussion in soc.motts from earlier this summer, the following is a list of some gay scientists in history; the source is a brochure from the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP, described in a previous posting). Sir Francis Bacon - 17th C. English philosopher of science Leonardo da Vinci - 15th C. Italian artist, scientist, and engineer; researcher of human anatomy, mathematics, and the potential for human flight. Margaret Mead - 20th C. American anthropologist and psychologist S. Josephine Baker - 20th C. physician Louise Pearce - 20th C. pathologist Alexander von Humboldt - 19th C. Prussian naturalist and explorer John Muir - 19th C. Scottish-born American naturalist Alan Turing - 20th C. British mathematician As references, the brochure includes Garde, N.I. _Jonathan to Gideon: The Homosexual in History_. New York: Vantage Press, 1964. Kavy, W.H. _The Gay Geniuses_. Glendale, Ca.: M. Miller, 1965. -------------- Stephen J. Herschkorn herschko@newton.berkeley.edu Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, and Survey Research Center University of California, Berkeley (If you really want more information, you could finger me - ooh, I wish you would!)
rrizzo@cc6.bbn.com.BBN.COM (Ron Rizzo) (08/24/87)
Also, Sir Isaac Newton, who never married, had no known women in his life (except his sister with whom he lived), & who had warm relation- ships with some of his students, who probably were also gay (eg, either Taylor or McLaurin, inventor of the series bearing his name). Even Newton's "straight" biographer Frank Manuel (MIT Press) seems to think Newton may have been gay.
travis@cunixc.columbia.edu (Travis Lee Winfrey) (08/25/87)
In article <453@cc6.bbn.com.BBN.COM> rrizzo@cc6.bbn.com.UUCP (Ron Rizzo) writes: >Also, Sir Isaac Newton, who never married, had no known women in his >life it's been a long time since I've read a biography of him; but I'm relatively certain that he offered a proposal of marriage to someone shortly after college, which was turned down. he was never linked romantically with anyone again. in the absence of any evidence stronger than "warm friendship", I think it's at least as likely that he was heterosexually inclined, or that he was just asexual. the proposal of marriage, of course, was probably just an expected thing, which doesn't stand as evidence either way. t -- -- DEFEAT BORK IN 87 -- WRITE A LETTER TO THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE Arpa: travis@cunixc.columbia.edu Bitnet: travis@cucca, tlwus@cuvma Usenet: ucbvax!mtxinu!ea!okstate!cucca!travis || !seismo!columbia!cucca!travis USMail: 612 W. 115th, #811, NYC 10025 Phone: 212-280-3704
rrizzo@cc6.bbn.com.BBN.COM (Ron Rizzo) (08/25/87)
The trouble with using the "argument from silence", i.e., lack of explicit
evidence, historically as to whether someone was gay, is that one must
conclude no one in the past was. Even notorious Greeks, such as Plato,
Socrates & Alexander the Great have been claimed for heterosexuality
(by AR Burn & Robin Lane Fox, resp.) by citing lack of data & the
historian's own incredulity (usually a product of bigotry).
To cite just one example of the embarassment that can result: in the
1920s, Dmitri Merejzkowski (?) wrote a thick 2-volume historical novel,
THE ROMANCE OF LEONARDO DA VINCI, predicated on the somewhat foolish
thesis that Leonardo was "straight". Credible when it was published,
it now is a literary white elephant, yet no "new data" were discovered
in the intervening years to show Da Vinci was gay. Instead, scholars
stopped being blinded by conventional prejudices.
It's even more risky to use lack of evidence either as the PRIMARY
basis for one's opinion or as a reason to discard a claim of homo-
sexuality and look no further.
To see how varied, complex & difficult historical argument has become
you may want to look at some of the following books:
Kenneth Dover, GREEK HOMOSEXUALITY (Harvard U Press, 1978)
Dover argues brilliantly to show that homosexuality
wasn't limited to the free upper classes in only a handful
of city states & only during the classical period.
In analyzing the language of comedy, he refutes a number
of points in Jeffrey Henderson's THE MACULATE MUSE (Harvard
U Press, 19??), a sophisticated earlier study which Dover
also praises.
John Boswell, CHRISTIANITY, SOCIAL TOLERANCE & HOMOSEXUALITY
(U Chicago Press, 1980) challenges Dover, through an
acute analysis of texts & their cultural context.
Derrick Bailey's HOMOSEXUALITY & THE WESTERN CHRISTIAN
TRADITION (1955), which had been by far the best work
on the subject, became immediately obsolete.
Boswell's biggest innovation is to argue for bisexuality/
pansexuality as the default, the given cultural matrix, in
ancient Greece AND Rome in nearly all periods, making
exclusive heterosexuality problematic, & turning upside
down the usual view of the ancient world.
Bernard Sergent, HOMOSEXUALITY IN GREEK MYTH (Beacon Press, 1986?)
is perhaps the most audacious attempt to salvage a gay
past, comparing & dissecting myths to assemble a pre- &
protohistorical picture of homoerotic institutions in
primitive Greece. Although lucidly written, the book's
argument is so arcane & contingent it's very hard to
follow. Yet, even at my most cynical, I think Sergent
has discovered something real (& completely unsuspected)
in the very distant past. Exactly what, is much harder to
say.
In the case of Newton, I'll simply point to the fact that quite a few
historians of science are now willing to entertain the idea that he was
gay. (I've never heard of an asexual person; "asexuality" usually means
relative lack of sexual expression, or more diffuse, ungenitalized sexual
interest. Anyway, it begs the question of Newton's sexuality.)
regards,
ron rizzogam@amdahl.amdahl.com (Gordon A. Moffett) (08/26/87)
I'm creating an Electronic Almanac and would like for people to send me dates of historical events and birthdays of famous Gay people. The dates must be in full: month, day and year. Thank you for your help. A similar book along these lines is "The Gay Book of Days", which itself is an almanac of such dates (and I'm ordering it!). -- Gordon A. Moffett gam@amdahl.amdahl.com "When I make a mistake they call it 'Evil', but when He makes a mistake they call it 'Nature'!"