Was Shakespeare gay? I ask this question on his 446 Birthday.

Was Shakespeare gay?
Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, apparently not intended for publication. The majority of these sonnets address the poet's love for a young man. There is no historical evidence to indicate Shakespeare was bisexual or homosexual; he was a married man with three children. However, the poet's intense romantic feelings for the young man in the sonnets have led some to believe Shakespeare was having a homosexual affair.

But is the speaker of the sonnets expressing Shakespeare's personal feelings? Does the young man belong solely to the realm of fantasy, as do Falstaff and the Three Witches? Since we do not know the answers, critics often choose to refer to the speaker of the sonnets as simply "the poet", to illustrate that he is a character, and not necessarily William Shakespeare. For much more on this topic, please see the commentary for Sonnet 20 and Sonnet 75.




Shakespeare's sonnets are cited as evidence of his possible bisexuality. The poems were initially published, perhaps without his approval, in 1609.One hundred and twenty-six of them appear to be love poems addressed to a young man known as the 'Fair Lord' or 'Fair Youth'; this is often assumed to be the same person as the 'Mr W.H.' to whom the sonnets are dedicated. The identity of this figure is unclear; the most popular candidates are Shakespeare's patrons, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton and William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, both of whom were considered handsome in their youth






there are numerous passages in the sonnets addressed to the Fair Lord that have been read as expressing desire for a younger man. In Sonnet 13, he is called 'dear my love', and Sonnet 15 announces that the poet is at 'war with Time for love of you.' Sonnet 18 asks 'Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?/Thou art more lovely and more temperate', and in Sonnet 20 the narrator calls the young man the 'master-mistress of my passion'. The poems refer to sleepless nights, anguish and jealousy caused by the youth. In addition, there is considerable emphasis on the young man's beauty: in Sonnet 20, the narrator theorizes that the youth was originally a woman whom Mother Nature had fallen in love with and, to resolve the dilemma of lesbianism, added a penis ('pricked thee out for women's pleasure'), an addition the narrator describes as 'to my purpose nothing', which Samuel Schoenbaum interprets as: 'worse luck for [the] heterosexual celebrant'. In some sonnets addressed to the youth, such as Sonnet 52, the erotic punning is particularly intense: 'So is the time that keeps you as my chest, Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide, To make some special instant special blest, By new unfolding his imprisoned pride.' In Sonnet 20: the narrator tells the youth to sleep with women, but to love only him: 'mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure'.




Being that this question still is being asked 400 years later. You be the judge....