I love how Shakespeare is both incredibly well documented and incredibly poorly documented.

Shakespeare was a closeted Italian, confirmed.

A man so pivotal to the English language, culture, and therefore global history.  And we don't know who he boinked, or even what he looked like.   A cultural ninja.

Oh my God this makes that vine "I'm a lesbian" "I thought you were american" even better

The Doctor Who ep when Willy hits on the Doc, who notes how many scholars just punched the air, never ceases to make me laugh.

I was in the US Army Combat Medic in an infantry battalion during the days of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.  Out of all of us who made up the Medic Platoon, one of us stood out as probably the best regarding medical skills and abilities as well as his abilities as a US Army Soldier.  He earned the Expert Field Medical Badge when most of the rest of us washed out (this is an extremely prestigious accomplishment in the Army Medical Corps).  This Soldier-Medic exemplified every quality that our training taught us to be and expect from others in our field.  No one could ever question his skills, abilities, or professionalism. He was, in essence, the idea Combat Medic...  except for one completely irrelevant thing... he was gay.  Of course, everyone in the Medic Platoon knew this fact including the platoon leadership.  You can't hide who you truly are when you live at close quarters in a high stress environment with the rest of your brothers you serve with, but the rest of the Company did not know.  We all thought the ban in homosexuals serving in the military was complete idiocy and the fact that he couldn't be who he was when off duty in his personal time was complete BS, but since that even with Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy in effect, it was still technically illegal to be gay in any US military branch, and he could and probably would be dishonorably discharged (which people who fail drug tests don't usually get) if the fact that he was gay was discovered by someone who might want to stirr up trouble.  So, we kept this fact inside the family in the Medic Platoon, and kept it well.  I'm not saying there wasn't any homophobia present, of course there was, but even the medics with a homophobic mindset realized that he was an excellent Combat Medic and Soldier and that he was most certainly an asset to the country he served, and therefore should be allowed to continue serving the country he swore oath to protect and defend.  It was his actions that defined him as a person, a Medic, and a Soldier, not his sexual orientation.  The idiotic Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy and homosexual ban, which were created and enacted by people who have never had to dig a foxhole, carry a rucksack, or carry a weapon outside of either Basic Training or Officer Candidate School, fortunately no longer exist.

At university, in my Shakespeare class, the teacher pointed out the homosocial relationships in everything we read because it’s such a novel concept to us, because after the 19th century in western culture, everyone has been so terrified of being seen as gay if they aren’t openly gay, so homosocial relationships don’t exist in the same way anymore.

I loved the explanation about how homosexuality was viewed in Shakespeare's time! Been struggling with how to portray two characters in a book I'm working on, and the sort of subtle sideye 'oh yeah, there's something going on there' whilst having plausible deniability is fantastic. I'm gonna stir up so much drama with this!!!

Wow. The fact that all the "traditionally soppy" Shakespeare sonnets were written to a young man was completely news to me 😳 Even if we can't conclude that W.S. was gay or bi, I think we can DEFINITELY conclude that societal & historical homophobia & biphobia have had (& are still having) a pretty strong impact on the study & teaching of his works!

Another thing to note is that Shakespeare seemed very into the classics, and it was common for classic poets like Horace and Catullus to write some of their poems to young men.
He could have been leaning into this tradition, either as a gay classics fan or just a classics fan.

Came for a video about Shakespeare, got one of the best videos on explaining how to understand sexuality in historical context.

Modern time-traveler questioning Shakespeare:

"So, are you gay...?"
"Certainlie, I am fair joyous and merry upon this fine afternoon!"
"I mean, do you love men?"
"Verily, I have love for all men forged under God's sight. Each, in his own way, is - -"
"But do you engage in buggery?"
"By heavens, no! That I should defile myself with - -"
"Yep, clearly a shirt-lifter."

When you boil it down to "Isn't this all a bit gay?" And "Was Shakespeare a big gay?" I realise how precious most of us are about these taboo things XD

I am always fascinated that certain historians will point to them marrying a woman that is the reason for them not being gay, while at the same time teaching people how people were strategically married of without ever meeting or that it used to be normal to marry to avoid shame when a child was born out of wedlock.

Your preface was so important and I wish more people understood this when thinking about historical figures in our modern ideas about sexuality.

In college, one day my Brit Lit prof out of the blue said to the class "I know that you're all thinking that Shakespeare was gay, but he had a wife, and he was paid by other people to write all those poems to men you've read. So you can just forget about discussing that in my class."
She said it so vehemently and with such conviction.. that I was always a bit curious.
Thank you for sating my curiosity ^^

Hamnet: So, about this play...
William Shakespeare: Again, any similarities to anyone living or dead is entirely coincidental! Besides, his name is Hamlet...totally different.

Your story made me realise how much of being queer is influenced by culture. And I don't mean in the bad way bigots like to use it. Of course being gay (or any other way of queer) is something you are born with, but how you express (or not express) this, has a lot of roots in the culture you live in.

16:38 "girl what were you doing at the devil's sacrament.?"😂😂😂

One thing we need to remember is that common decent practices and language use, is very different today from what it was then.

Terms like "I love him (like my brother)" would have been very normal where this would be unspoken in current polite English speaking society.

In the past the term "love" was used accurately without the assumed sexual overlay that is typical now.

Even today, in many countries it is quite normal for people to walk in public holding a friends hand or to walk arm in arm or in embrace, with no particular sexual inference.