In the game Crusader Kings 2, if you're playing as a Nordic ruler, you can get an event where your son will try to join the Varangian Guard. If you let him join, one of the possible outcomes to the event will be your son returning a few years later, talking about "greek love", and he will gain the "homosexual" trait.
Does this have any basis in history? Did the Varangian Guard have a reputation for it's members being gay? Or is it just some joke the devs added to the game?
I don't know about the Varangian guard but the Novgorodian 12th century Orthodox bishop Niphont prescribed it as a preferable alternative to adultery. In the 11th century living of the Saint martyrs Boris and Gleb saint Boris is described to have had a Hungarian lover, who was slaughtered together with Boris while trying to save his life. Apparently it was a thing in the Byzantian upper class culture.
Source: «The Sexual Culture in Russia», Igor' S. Kon. OGI, Moscow 1997.