Currently taking an LGBT Art and Literature course and the textbook Finding Out: An Introduction to LGBT Studies actually talks about this in chapter one:

In general, female-female sexuality was regarded as a lesser offense than male-male sexuality for various reasons: lacking a penis, a woman could not commit the sin of "spilling the seed". Lesbian sex was widely considered to be merely a preliminary activity preparing a woman for marriage; a sexually aggressive woman was thought to be emulating men-in other words, aspiring to a more perfect state of nature." (p. 8)

It does go on to state how lesbian sex wasn't approved and talks about how women would be punished for cross dressing due to their violating "accepted gender practice."

My instructor lectured on how it was likely because the societies were so patriarchal and it wasn't even thought women could have sex, or had sexual drives and interests.

Later in the same chapter/lecture, the concept of female-female romantic friendships, also known as Boston Marriages, were common and accepted.

Hope this helped a little bit. Maybe in a few years when I get my MA in Folkloristics with a concentration on LGBT folklore, I could help more! :)

There are almost no references to lesbian sex in classical literature. There's Sappho. She's an interesting case. She's very interested in vaginas, but still had a daughter.

I had a terrible class with Apostolos Athanasakis. The class was entirely made up of men, and we were reading Sappho's garden poem. Athanasakis went out of his way to point out the metaphor of the garden. No one wants an old Greek man to explain what a vagina is. It was the most uncomfortable class I ever had.

Sappho is often branded lesbian, but she also writes about relationships with men, and as I mentioned she had a daughter.

The only other reference to lesbian sex I know is Aristophanes' story in Plato's Symposium. That's supposed to be a joke though.

Ancients just didn't talk about it. Women's history for the classical world is in poor shape, because ancient historians were political historians, and very few women were politically active.

After I finish this damn dissertation I'm writing a biography of Fulvia, and maybe after that an article on Hortensia. Women need a lot more attention.

So with the usual caveat that the categories of "gay" and "straight" are very recent constructions that cannot be applied to the bulk of history, I have a few thoughts on this.

I would suggest that the pool of women who are known to have same-sex relationships or be presumed to be lesbians is actually pretty large. Marie Antoinette, Eleanor Roosevelt, Willa Cather, Jane Addams, Virgina Woolf, Jospehine Baker, Gladys Bentley, Marlene Dietrich, and quite a large number of other female historical figures were known or presumed to have relationships with women. However, I do think there is something to be said about the gender breakdown of who is considered a major historical figure. Much of mainstream history is unfortunately very centered on military and political history and as such leaves out a lot of women.

The other factor, as some others have brought up here, is that female sexuality and desire was pretty poorly understood and often outright ignored. Same sex attraction between women was often considered fleeting, unimportant, and not a threat to heterosexual sex and relationships. Additionally, there is an entire category of relationship - the romantic friendship - that effectively no longer exists and that can be challenging to fit into contemporary notions of sexuality. Although they were common amongst both men and women, romantic friendships (which might include a sexual component, but very often did not) are of particular interest when looking at the history of female same-sex behavior.

Same sex sexuality amongst woman quite often "flew under the gaydar" making it difficult to track and quantify. This coupled will a much smaller number of women who are deemed "important" historical figures probably accounts for fewer historical women presumed to be lesbians.

King Louis XVIII of France married Princess Maria Giuseppina of Savoy. Queen Marie Joséphine (as she was known in France) lived apart from her husband for most of the marriage. Rumors from the time and correspondence written by Marie Josephine essentially suggest she maintained a long time romantic and sexual relationship with a lady-in-waiting, Marguerite de Gourbillon.

"... she did have a passionate attachment until her death with her Lectrice de la Chambre, Madame de Gourbillon. Their correspondence was intimate and during one of the many separations forced on them by Provence, who had grown to hate Gourbillon, the Comtesse wrote her friend that though her husband was "the master in my house, he is not master of my heart - he has never had it." Even from her deathbed, she continued to send daily love letters to Gourbillon. After Marie Josephine's death, Madame de Gourbillon sold the implicating letters to the widower, then King Louis XVIII, in exchange for a substantial annual pension." - http://www.batguano.com/cdeprovence.html

[Citations:] "RECORDS OF BUCKINGHAM SHIRE BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE Architectural and Archaeological Society FOR THE County of Buckingham (Founded Nov. 16, 1847.)" VOL. XI.—No. 7. [The couple lived in exile in Buckinghamshire UK]

Hibbert, Christopher, The French Revolution, Penguin Books (London), 1982, pp. 331–332

Castelot, André, Madame Royale, Librairie Académique Perrin, Paris, 1962, p. 15, (French). [I was only able to partially read this in translation]

Could it also be a result of political intrigue?

What i mean by this that slandering your political enemies of violating sexual norms seems not only common but very effective way to demonize your opponent. While what was permitted and with who drastically differed accusations of deviancy did not (at least in europe including ancient greece and rome).

I don't mean to speculate so much as an answer but to clarify my question.

Queen Anne? The one that was pregnant seventeen times?

This is the first I'm hearing about Elizabeth I being a lesbian. While her virginity is up for debate, Its very strongly suggested that she had several love affairs, the strongest being with Raliegh and Dudley haha. as a Female who's currently persuing a undergrad in History (shocking, i know) I think, to my understanding, it's because of a lack of intrest. Women were seen as sinners, stemming back from when Eve ate the apple from the Garden of Eden, and could easily tempt men into sex. Women who had sex out of marriage were often seen as sinners (the Scarlett Letter) and yet at the same time, History has often been a male-dominated field, to the point that the idea of women having same-sex relationships were often dismissed. Marie Antoinette was accused of being a lesbian several times during her time as Queen, but more often then not was dismissed as 'slander' Another example is Eleanor Roosevelt, who had a very close relationship with Lorena Hickok. During her time at the White House however, any photography/film that would be shown to the public, Hickok was carefully edited out. It's only been in the decades after her Eleanor's death that unedited photos featuring Hickok and letters (OVER 3500) have been released. However, the recent Ken Burns doucmentry does not mention this relationship at all. One of the producers stated that "This [the documentry] is a intimate history, not a tabloid history." Basically- The idea of famous women having lesbian/LGBTQ relationships seems alien to people and often dismissed as slandor/rumors. Hope this helps :)