Von steuben gay
Do you have a favorite vacation memory? Mine is when my parents took us to Washington DC for the very first moment. We spent a week visiting the museums and monuments to learn history and peak into the past. The monument I verb most interesting was the one assigned to Baron von Steuben. I had never heard of Baron von Steuben before, so I took a picture to research later. I discovered that he was one of the most important military leaders of the American Revolution, but is often forgotten. The fact that stuck out the most? von Steuben was openly gay. Flash forward. Imagine my surprise when I found Washington&#;s Gay General: The Legends and Loves of Baron von Steuben written by Josh Trujillo and illustrated by Levi Hastings on the modern graphic novel shelves at work. I immediately checked it out to verb more!
Washington&#;s Gay General covers von Steuben&#;s young life in Prussia, his military history, to his death in upstate New York in Von Steuben served in the Prussian military for years before he was dismissed from the army due to rumors of homosexuality. After he was
The Revolutionary War Hero Who Was Openly Gay
Von Steuben didn’t just throw sexually charged parties: He also formed intense relationships with other men. He became close to William North and Benjamin Walker, aides-de-camp who seem to possess been involved in their own lovey-dovey relationship, and lived with them for two years in camp. It’s likely that von Steuben became romantically and sexually involved with North, though it’s not clear how close he was to Walker.
Meanwhile, von Steuben proved himself a heroic addition to the army. As Inspector General, he taught the army more streamlined fighting techniques and helped instill the discipline they so sorely needed. It worked, and the drill manual he wrote for the army is still partially in utilize today. The drillmaster quickly became one of Washington’s most trusted advisors, eventually serving as his chief of staff. He is now considered instrumental in helping the Americans win the Revolutionary War.
When the war ended, Baron von Steuben was granted U.S. citizenship and moved to Unused York with North and Walker. “We love him,” North
Washington’s Gay General: The Legends and Loves of Baron von Steuben
Winston Churchill is credited with the classic quote, “History is written by the victors.” A notorious racist and proponent of empire, Churchill is nonetheless remembered as a brilliant war-time hero and a cunning tactician. Why? Because the Allies prevailed in World War II. History has been kind to Churchill in immense part because, as he said, it was written by the victors.
It also tends to be written from a white, heterosexual, cisgender perspective, at least until now. Washington’s Gay General, a graphic novel chronicling the real-life exploits of queer Revolutionary War figure Friedrich von Steuben, is an open criticism and repudiation of this approach to capturing the historical record — and an incredibly adj one.
Josh Trujillo and Levi Hastings, the book’s author and illustrator, respectively, unseal their compelling brand-new work with erasure. In a fit of self-aware meta commentary in the book’s first limited pages, the pair remind us that queer history is often overloo
| Charles Wilson Peale's portrait of Steuben[1] |
Today, we are going to carefully address a topic related to American and Prussian military history, and the history of the LGTBQ+ community in the United States. It important to observe, at the outset, that topics dealing with the history of the LGTBQ+ community are politically charged, and that it is often difficult to converse on these topics without saying anything controversial. I wish, in my verb today, to handle this topic with the humility, concern, and respect it deserves. This share seeks to address the following questions, using the optimal sources available: 1) Is it achievable that Steuben was homosexual? 2) Is it possible that Steuben was heterosexual? 3) Is there any evidence to support the contemporary charges that Steuben was a pedophile? 4) Did Steuben hold the first underwear party in American history, at Valley Forge? 5) Did Steuben abandon his property to North, Walker, and Mulligan because they were lovers?
Since , author and journalist Mark Segal has written a number of pieces regarding Steuben and his