A short history of queerness

10.07.2025 July 10, 2025

Was the Mona Lisa not a woman, but rather Leonardo da Vinci's lover posed as the model for the painting? The artist was gay—because being queer is by no means a modern phenomenon. A journey through the centuries.

It was the year 1476 when the youngLeonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) came under the scrutiny of the Florentine morality authorities. Someone had anonymously accused him of having committed fornication with a 17-year-old prostitute. Due to a lack of evidence, the charges were dropped.

However, contemporary sources confirm that Leonardo loved men, says literary historian Dino Heicker, author of the book "World History of Queerness ." He was particularly fond of his apprentice Gian Giacomo Caprotti, known as "Salaj" (in English: "little devil"), who was 28 years his junior and with whom he lived under the same roof for many years.

A few years ago, Italian art historians believed they had found proof that the world-famous Mona Lisa did not depict Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a Florentine merchant, but rather Caprotti. He modeled for da Vinci several times, and the resemblance, researchers say, is unmistakable. Furthermore, the letters L and S (for Leonardo and Salaj) can be seen in the Mona Lisa's eyes, and the endearment "mon salaj" (my Salaj) can be read as an anagram of "Mona Lisa." The Louvre Museum, where the world-famous painting hangs, doesn't think much of this theory. Is it true? Da Vinci and his companion took this secret with them to their graves.

The fact is, however, as Leonardo's first biographer, Giorgio Vasari, wrote in 1550, that the painter "found a peculiar pleasure" in the beautiful boy. "Peculiar"—a euphemism for the fact that da Vinci was homosexual.

The biblical city of Sodom as a den of sin

"If a majority defines what is normal and abnormal and declares a binary gender model to be the norm, then the minority who feel differently have a hard time," says Dino Heicker.

In his book, he reports on the sometimes draconian punishments that awaited homosexual, nonbinary, or transgender people who indulged in "unnatural" practices. They were chained, stoned, castrated, or burned at the stake. The Bible, according to which God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sinfulness, provided legitimacy; the term sodomy was long considered synonymous with homosexuality .

This story "provided the blueprint for centuries of stigmatization of people who were different," says Heicker. In 1512, the Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa had indigenous people in America torn to pieces by his dogs for committing "the horrible sin of sodomy".

On the other hand, there were also societies in which any form of queerness was generally accepted. In ancient times , for example, it was common for men to have a male prostitute (alongside their wife). The Roman Emperor Hadrian was so heartbroken by the death of his beloved Antinous that he posthumously declared him a god and had numerous statues and cult sites built in honor of the handsome youth.

On the island of Crete, the legislator came up with something very special for birth control, according to the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC): "boy love." Older men took a young man into their home to educate him. "The younger man was then expected to perform sexual favors, which was not socially viewed negatively," explains Dino Heicker.

Feminine love was also already known at that time. On the island of Lesbos, the poetess Sappho celebrated the beauty of the female sex in her verses. Models for the various forms of love were found in the world of the gods. Above all, Zeus, the father of the gods, the epitome of queerness—even though the term didn't exist back then. He transformed himself into women, animals, and even a cloud to indulge himself with the object of his desire.

In ancient times, there was nothing wrong with a man sleeping with other men or boys, "as long as one played the active role," explains Dino Heicker. "The penetrated, i.e., the inferior, was considered effeminate and socially inferior." In the Roman Empire , political opponents were often accused of being sexually passive, because "this could also be a very tangible way of denting their honor."

With the spread of Christianity , the leniency toward same-sex love came to an end. The bishop and Benedictine monk Peter Damian (1006-1072), one of the most influential clergymen of the 11th century, railed against fornication—even in monasteries. This "unnatural vice spread like a cancer among the clergy and raged like a bloodthirsty beast among the flock of Christ." He was convinced that sodomy arose from diabolical suggestions.

Among the samurai warriors in Japan and at the Chinese imperial court, homosexuality was much more relaxed, and male love was widespread. In 1549, Jesuit Father Francisco de Xavier noted: "Buddhist priests constantly commit crimes against nature and do not even deny it, but freely admit it."

In later centuries and in modern times, there have always been famous queer personalities – even among crowned heads.

Heicker's book is like a list of the queer who's who. Whether it's the Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), the Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), the Black American playwright James Baldwin (19-24-1987), or Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, who retreated to a lonely valley in Wales around 1780 and were viewed with suspicion as the Ladies of Llangollen, they all tried to find happiness in their own way.

The English landowner Anne Lister (1791-1840) left behind a diary that was added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2011. "There are 26 volumes in which she writes extensively about lesbian sex and her relationships with women," says Heicker. Lister had specifically developed her own secret code to ensure that no unauthorized person could read her confessions. It wasn't deciphered until 1930. In her village, she was often called "Gentleman Jack," but she remained largely unmolested. Lister's writings significantly shaped the direction of British gender studies and women's history.

Whether the Mahus in Tahiti, the Muxes of the Zapotec people in Mexico, the Hijras in India , or the North American Lhamanas among the Zuñi: for thousands of years, they have all identified as neither male nor female, but rather as belonging to a third gender. "There was much greater diversity than the narrowing down to the two-gender model makes seem possible today," says Heicker. "The Zuñi, for example, don't assume that gender is innate; rather, they viewed it as social formation."

In Germany, this third gender is now called "diverse." "I think queer people, especially in Germany, have fought for an incredible amount of freedom. Previous generations could only dream of it," says Heicker. "In 1994, Paragraph 175 ( which criminalized sexual acts between persons of the male sex. Editor's note ) was finally removed from the penal code, marriage is now universal, and sexual discrimination can be reported. On the other hand, and here comes the big but: What has been achieved must of course also be protected, because there are certainly attempts to turn back the clock."

Indeed, hate crimes against queer people are on the rise. "It's becoming increasingly common to be insulted or even spat upon," Uwe Weiler, managing director of Cologne Pride, recently told the Kölner Stadtanzeiger newspaper. "The inhibition threshold has dropped."

In Germany, such attacks are punished, but elsewhere the situation is different. "You only have to look at Russia, where holding hands is banned as propaganda. And now, recently, in the United States under President Trump ( after taking office, he said there are only two genders: male and female, ed. )," says Heicker. "So, worldwide, this is obviously a step backward. One should never be too sure that the achievements one has fought for will last forever."

Dino Heicker: World History of Queerness. BeBra Verlag, 2025