It is a popular myth that same-sex relationships don’t last. This list of well known couples — some from ancient times, others more recent — suggests the reality of committed couples, and the roles that partners plays in each other’s lives and, in some cases, each other’s work.If these are the famous and well known ones how many 1000s must there be that dont come into the spotlight and live happily ever after in the suburbs.
Famous Historical Couples Years Together
Mazo de la Roche (author)
Caroline Clement
75
Edith Hamilton (classicist)
Doris Fielding Reid
60
Romaine Brooks (painter)
Natalie Barney (heiress)
55
George Nader (actor, author)
Mark Miller (secretary to Rock Hudson)
George retired from acting in 1974, and published “Chrome,” a sci-fi novel that featured a gay love story between a man and a robot, in 1978. With Miller, he also wrote the forthcoming “The Perils of Paul,” a novel about the gay community in Hollywood. George died at 80 in 2002
55
Lady Eleanor Butler
Sarah Ponsonby
Known as the “Ladies of Llangeollen” in the General Evening Post, 1790.
53
Mary Woolley (author, Mt. Holyoke College president)
Jeannette Marks
Wooley was the only female member of the 1932 Geneva Arms Conference.
52
J.C. Leyendecker (illustrator for the Sat Evening Post, Collier’s, etc.)
Charles Beach (artists model; the “Arrow Collar Man”)
50
Mary “Molly” Dewson (known as “Americas first female political boss”)
Polly Porter
50
Octave Thanet
Jane Crawford
50
Mary Renault (author)
Julie Mullard
50
William Haines (20s-30s movie actor, interior decorator)
Jimmie Shields (househusband)
Referred to by their friend Joan Crawford as “The happiest married couple in Hollywood.”
50
Axel Axgil (gay activist)
Eigil Axgil (gay activist)
World’s first “Registered Partnership” couple.
46
J. Edgar Hoover (FBI chief, transvestite)
Clyde Tolson (FBI special agent)
44
Edward Perry Warren (art connoisseur)
John Marshall (archaeologist)
Warren strove to create an informal “brotherhood of men” in his home devoted to the Hellenic ideal. His Greek antique collections form the core collections at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Warren commissioned Rodin’s “The Kiss.”
44
Sir John Gielgud (actor)
Martin Hensler
40
Benjamin Britten (composer)
Peter Pears (singer)
40
Marguerite Yourcenar [born Marguerite de Crayencour] (author)
Grace Frick (academic)
Yourcenar wrote “Alexis,” “Memories of Hadrian,” “The Abyss,” and an influential essay on Yokio Mishima. She became the first and only woman to be admitted to the Académie Fançaise in 1980.
40
Rosa Bonheur (painter)
Natalie Micas
40
Willa Cather (author)
Edith Lewis
40
H.D. [Hilda Doolittle] (poet)
Bryher (writer)
40+
Gertrude Stein (poet, author)
Alice B. Toklas (author)
39
Edward Carpenter (reformer, author, England’s first gay activist)
George Merrill
39
Harry Hay (author, activist)
John Burnside (activist)
Hay formed the Mattachine Society in 1949, and was co-founder of the Radical Faeries in 1979.
39
[Ended with Hay’s
death in 2002.]
Janet Flanner (journalist)
Natalia Danesi Murray (writer, editor, radio commentator)
38
[Flanner’s 2nd relationship]
Raymond Burr (actor, philanthropist)
Robert Benevides (Burr’s business partner, philanthropist)
35
[Relationship ended when Burr died in 1993.]
Paul Cadmus (painter)
Jon Andersson (singer, actor)
35
W.H. Auden (poet)
Chester Kallman (poet)
34
Lou Harrison (composer)
William Colvig (instrument designer)
33
[1967-2000 ended with William’s death]
Christopher Isherwood (author)
Don Bachardy (painter)
32
Charlotte Witton (1st woman mayor of a major Canadian city, Ottawa)
Margaret Grier
Witton is credit with creating the slogan:
“Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought of half so good … luckily, it’s not difficult.”
32
Ned Rorem (composer, author)
James Holmes (organist)
32
Maria Louise Pool (author)
Caroline M. Branson
While Branson is listed as “literary companion” in Pool’s obituary, the two are buried together, with a double headstone, in the Rockland, Massachusetts Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.
32
Leonardo da Vinci (artist, inventor)
Giacomo Caprotti (Leonardo’s apprentice)
30 approx.
Samuel Barber (composer)
Gian Carlo Menotti (composer)
30
Anna Cogswell Wood
Irene Leache
30
Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett
Margaret Jourdain
30
Sarah Orne Jewett (novelist, feminist)
Annie Adams Fields (philanthropist, biographer)
30
Radclyffe Hall (author)
Lady Una Troubridge
30
Noël Coward (playwright, songwriter)
Graham Payn (actor)
29
[Coward’s last
relationship]
W. Somerset Maugham (author)
Gerald Haxton
29 approx.
[Met when
Maugham was 40]
Francis Poulenc (composer)
Pierre Bernac (baritone)
28 approx.
Jean Cocteau (author, poet, filmmaker)
Jean “Jeannot” Marais (actor)
26
[Met in 1937;
Cocteau died 1963]
James Whale (director in theater & film [Frankenstein, Invisible Man, Show Boat])
David Lewis (producer, studio exec.)
26
Katharine Lee Bates (poet, author, Wellesley College professor)
Katharine Coman (Wellesley College Dean)
Bates wrote the poem “America the Beautiful:”
“O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!”
25
Sir Nigel Hawthorne (actor)
Trevor Bentham
22
Kathryn Hulme (author The Nun’s Story)
Marie-Louise Habets (ex-nun)
21+
Allen Ginsberg (poet)
Peter Orlovsky (poet, gardener)
20
James Buchanan (U.S. Representative, Senator, Secretary of State under Polk, minister to Russia & Great Britain, 15th President)
William Rufus Devane King (U.S. Senator, minister to France, Vice-President under Franklin Pierce)
20
Sylvia Beach (bookstore owner, publisher)
Adrienne Monnier (writer, publisher)
20
Charlotte Cushman (actor, arts patron)
Emma Stebbins (sculptor)
20
Maud Hunt Squire [aka Miss Furr]
Ethel Mars [aka Miss Skeene]
20
Cris Williamson (singer, songwriter)
Tret Fure (music producer, engineer)
20
[Relationship ended
in 2000]
Janet Flanner (journalist)
Solita Solano (drama critic, editor)
19+
[Flanner’s 1st relationship]
Alexander the Great (known world conqueror)
Hephaistion (Al’s primary cavalry commander and right-hand man)
19
W. Somerset Maugham (writer)
Alan Searle
19
[Met when
Maugham was 72]
Joe Orton (playwright)
Kenneth Halliwell
16
Al Parker (b. Andrew Okun; director, producer, porn star)
Richard Cole (producer, actor)
16
Cary Grant (screen actor)
Randolph Scott (screen actor)
15
Edward II (king)
Piers Gaveston (son of a king)
14
Tennessee Williams (playwright)
Frankie Merlo
14
Amy Lowell (poet)
Ada Russell
13
Michael Bussee (co-found Exodus International)
Gary Cooper (not the screen actor)
Exodus Int. is an anti-gay group that falsely claims orientation conversion. The couple met in an “ex-gay” ministry in late 70s. Denounced the ministry as fraudulent in 1978. Ceremonially married each other in 1982.
12
[Relationship ended with Cooper’s death in 1991]
Melissa Etheridge (singer)
Julie Cypher (film & video director)
12
[Relationship ended
in 2000]
Lige Clarke (author, activist)
Jack Nichols (author, activist)
11
[Relationship ended with Clarke’s death in 1975]
Barney Frank (U.S. House of Representatives)
Herb Moses (potter)
11
[Relationship ended
in 1998]
Armistead Maupin (author)
Terry Anderson
10
Billy Strayhorn (composer)
Aaron Bridgers (pianist)
Billy composed such well-known songs as “Take the ‘A’ Train,” co-wrote many songs with Duke Ellington, and was his arranger for many years.
10
[Billy’s 1st relationship]
Gianni Versace (fashion designer)
Antonio D’Amico
10+
James Charles Stuart - VI of Scotland & I of England (author “Basilicon Doron,” King, commissioned the 1611 version of the Bible)
George Villiers (Duke of Buckingham)
James bestowed upon his love the titles of knight, earl, and finally duke. James wrote:
“You may be sure that I love the Earl of Buckingham more than anyone else, and more than you who are here assembled. I wish to speak in my own behalf and not to have it thought to be a defect, for Jesus Christ did the same, and therefore I cannot be blamed. Christ had John, and I have George.”
10+
Walt Whitman (poet)
Peter Doyle (streetcar conductor)
10
Lawrence Olivier (actor)
Danny Kaye (actor, singer, comedian)
10
[Their sexual relationship lasted untill Olivier remarried and his wife objected]
Noël Coward (playwright, songwriter)
Jack Wilson (business manager)
10
[Coward’s 1st major
relationship]
Oscar Wilde (author, playwright)
Lord Alfred Douglas
9
Angelina Weld Grimké (author, abolitionist)
Mamie Burrill
7
Sara Teasdale (poet)
Margaret Conklin
7
Publius Aelius Hadrian (Roman emperor)
Antinous (slave or page, household favorite)
Hadrian (76-138 AD), considered one of the greatest Roman emperors. They met when Hadrian was 39 and Antinous was about 14. Rather than an accident or suicide, some say Antinous may have been drowned in Egypt by jealous imperial servants. Hadrian was extremely distraught over Antinous’ death. He declared the former slave or page to be a god, and, on the spot where his body was found, named a city, Antinopolis, after him. Statues of Antinous were carved to honor the new deity, and were erected throughout the Roman empire. They often mimicked the form of the Egyptian god Osiris, who also drowned in the Nile.
6
Jean Cocteau (author, poet, filmmaker)
Raymond Radiguet (actor)
6
[Met in 1917;
Radiguet died 1923]
Jasper Johns (artist)
Robert Rauschenberg (artist)
6
[Relationship ended
in 1961]
T.E. Lawrence (archaeologist, spy, author)
Dahoum (personal assistant)
5
Serge Diaghilev (impresario)
Vaslav Nijinsky (dancer)
4
Rock Hudson (actor)
Marc Christian
4
Billy Strayhorn (composer)
Bill Grove
Strayhorn composed such well-known songs as “Take the ‘A’ Train,” co-wrote many songs with Duke Ellington, and was his arranger for many years.
3
[Billy’s 2nd relationship ended with his death in 1967]
Akhenaten - formerly Amenhotep IV (pharaoh: 10th king, 18th dynasty)
Smenkhkare (co-ruler)
3+
Liberace (Walter Valentino) (piano entertainer, philanthropist)
Scott Thorson
3
Ellen DeGeneres (comedic TV entertainer)
Anne Heche (actress)
3
[Relationship ended
in 2000]
Paul Verlaine (poet)
Arthur Rimbaud (poet)
2
Eleanor Roosevelt (philanthropist, presidential first lady)
Lorena Hickok (reporter)
Unknown
Katherine Bradley (author)
Edith Cooper (author)
They were aunt and niece — living their whole lives together — and wrote books under the shared pen name of “Michael Field.”
Unknown
Margaret Anderson (co-founder of The Little Review)
Jane Heap (co-founder of The Little Review)
Unknown
Margaret Anderson (co-founder of The Little Review)
Georgette Leblanc (soprano, author)
Unknown
[relationship followed
Anderson & Heap’s]
Margaret Anderson (co-founder of The Little Review)
Dorothy (Enrico) Caruso (author)
Unknown
[relationship followed
Leblanc’s &
Enrico’s deaths]
Jane Heap (co-founder of The Little Review)
Elspeth Champcommunal (clothing designer)
Unknown
[relationship followed
Heap & Anderson’s]
William III (King of England)
William Bentinck
Unknown
Sergius (saint)
Bacchus (saint)
Unknown
Francis Beaumont (dramatist)
John Fletcher
Unknown
John Maynard Keynes (economist)
Duncan Grant (painter)
Unknown
Frederico Garcia Lorca (author, poet, playwright)
Phillip Cummings
Unknown
Anne Cormac Bonny (pirate)
Mary Read, alias “Mark” Read (pirate)
These two women where hot-headed, bisexuals who also happened to be thieves, arsonists, and cut-throat murderers. Historical knowledge about them is based largely upon “A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates,” by Captain Charles Johnson (probably a pseudonym for Daniel Defoe). It was published in 1724 after Anne and Mary were brought to trial for piracy on the high seas in 1720.
Unknown
Lucius Morris Beebe (author; philanthropist; named one of the ten best-dressed men in America for several years)
Charles Clegg (literary collaborator)
Beebe and Clegg traveled for many years in Beebe’s elaborate private railroad car. Among the more than 30 books Beebe wrote were many on railroads.
Unknown
Cheng I (pirate)
Chang Pao (pirate, colonel)
Pirating in the South Seas, Cheng I kidnapped Chang Pao, 15. They became lovers, then Cheng adopted Chang. After Cheng’s death, and a failed campaign to become emperor, Chang became a colonel in the Chinese army.
Unknown
Gilgamesh (Babylonian king)
Enkidu