Frédéric Chopin in 1849 (Photo: Louis-Auguste Bisson) Claims that composer Frédéric Chopin, one of Poland’s most famous sons, was gay has sparked outrage in Europe’s most homophobic country. The acclaimed pianist, who lived from 1810 to 1849, is admired around the world as a musical genius, a fact that’s been proudly embraced by his homeland.
The country’s largest airport in the capital Warsaw, for example, is named after the national icon. A new radio documentary titled Chopin’s Men, however, has riled up the nation’s conservatives after it claimed that Chopin’s homosexuality had been erased by historians, despite ample evidence that he’d had relationships with men.