Was this Revolutionary War hero America’s first openly gay general?
Hailed as the architect of drilling and discipline that continue to shape the U.S. Army today, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben is honored by many. Gen. George Washington wrote a fawning letter to von Steuben, his last in the final hours of Washington’s commission on Dec. 23, 1783, “to signifie in the strongest terms my entire approbation of your conduct,” after years of von Steuben’s faithful service. Congress voted to make one of the grand monuments in Lafayette Square across from the White House an ode to the Prussian officer who crossed the Atlantic to turn a farraginous group of untrained militiamen into the unified fighting force that beat the world’s dominant military power in the Revolutionary War.
To this day, memorial wreaths are placed at the base of this statue.
WaPo, so can’t link
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | June 21, 2025 4:52 AM
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Maybe this Apple News link will be of use to some.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | June 20, 2025 11:26 PM
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There’s a great graphic novel about this guy. It’s called Washington’s Gay General by Josh Trujillo and Levi Hastings.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | June 21, 2025 12:30 AM
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Whose side would he have taken in 2025: Patti LuPone's, or Audra McDonald's?
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | June 21, 2025 12:35 AM
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He just never found the right girl
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | June 21, 2025 12:36 AM
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Steubenville, Ohio is named after him, and Dean Martin came from there. But that's all I know.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | June 21, 2025 12:57 AM
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He wasn’t American. He was German.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | June 21, 2025 1:07 AM
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What about Steuben, Maine?
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | June 21, 2025 1:11 AM
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What about Steuben crystal dildos?
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | June 21, 2025 1:15 AM
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I wonder how gay men had sex back then. Was it the same as we do now?
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | June 21, 2025 1:17 AM
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I believe the man went up into the man.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | June 21, 2025 2:29 AM
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R10 must be Rose Nylund.
No, Rose, penises, anuses, and mouths weren’t invented until the 1900s!
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | June 21, 2025 3:42 AM
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They did not have douche nozzle heads, R10, and used goose fat as lube.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | June 21, 2025 3:58 AM
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I'll make sure nothing in the military is named after this homo
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | June 21, 2025 4:52 AM
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