I think it’s very important to remember that the United States only exists today because of a 1770s gay sex scandal.
In 1777, the US Continental Army was in rough shape, consisting of poorly provisioned and poorly trained men that really just wanted to go home. Because the idea of a cohesive US was new, many of them considered themselves to be fighting for their individual colony’s freedom and were not happy to find themselves several states over freezing and starving to death.
Enter our man, Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (usually called Baron von Steuban).
Baron Von Steuben was an extremely accomplished and brilliant Prussian military strategist and commander, having served as aide-de-camp to freaking Frederick the Great and done all sorts of awesome military shit you can go look up.
There was just one problem: Baron von Steuban was very very infamously gay. Like. One of the most explicitly, openly-acknowledged gay historical figures in pre-nineteenth century history. Very gay.
This created a HUGE scandal in Prussia, and Baron von Steuban was all but chased out of the country once the gossip broke out. Looking for refuge and still wanting to make a name for himself, he took up an offer from Benjamin Franklin to volunteer with the American revolutionary effort and was eventually promoted to Inspector General of the Continential Army [essentially Washington’s #2].
To make a very long military history story short, he basically single-handedly saved our asses. He trained the American soldiers to perform drills, fight in tactical formations, preserve and protect supplies, and strategize. He led the military in decisive battles and decisions that turned the tide of the war in our favor. Every American public school kid learns about him as one of the most important military figures in our history, and almost certainly the reason we won the American Revolution.
[This pic is much nicer about his nose]
So like…without that sex scandal he would have never fled to the United States. We would have never found another guaranteed non-treasonous, highly skilled military leader to work for the US Continental Army for free. All the soldiers would have eventually AWOLed from their ranks and gone home (it was already beginning to happen). There would be no America as we know and understand it today.
Interestingly, although the US Continental Army did target and punish men for having sex with each other, they turned a very blind eye to Baron von Steuben’s public posse of sugar babies protégés. Later in his life, he actually “adopted” some of his lovers (of a range of ages) so that under American law, they could inherit his estate after his death. His whole life is really fascinating tbh & I’d recommend reading up on it a bit more if you get the chance.
Von Steuben also wrote the military Blue Book! Parts of it are still used today! My dad served as an officer in the US and German armies decades ago and he was pleasantly surprised to find similarities in the training manuals he was supposed to use because they were both based off of the same guy’s text. Growing up, von Steuben was the only military figure he’d talk about because he’s a giant hippie but also his family was originally from Prussia and therefore he liked him a lot. He was very pleased to find out a couple years ago about the gay sex scandal thing.
myblog 