Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Alexander the Great; these are just some of the names that are often mentioned when discussing LGBT+ identities. I’m not really talking about the historical evidence which proves or disproves what their sexuality was, but is it still accurate to describe them using current LGBT+ terminology?
Take Alexander the Great for example. The English language didn’t exist when he was alive, let alone the word “gay”. Our current conception of sexuality was foreign to ancient Greece. No one was defining their sexuality by the gender of their lovers. Obviously ideas surrounding sexuality would have changed in ancient Greece throughout the centuries, but generally it could be said that what was considered sexually acceptable depended on who was performing particular sex acts.