Gay icon a prototypical portrait of a tortured closet case." Due to Saint Sebastian's status as a gay icon, Tennessee Williams chose to use the saint's name for the martyred character Sebastian in his play, "Suddenly, Last Summer". The name was also used by Oscar Wilde—as Sebastian Melmoth—when in exile after his release from prison. Wilde, an Irish writer and poet, was about as "out of the closet" as was possible for the late 19th century, and is himself considered to be a gay icon. Marie Antoinette was an early lesbian icon. Rumors about her relationships with women circulated in pornographic detail
Sebastian Haffner considered as one of the most successful German authors in the history of the 19th and 20th century writing for a broad, nonacademic audience. He wrote most of his works in German, some of which have been translated into English, French, Spanish, Hebrew and other languages. The manuscript of "Defying Hitler", discovered posthumously by his son, Oliver Pretzel, is a memoir of the Nazis' rise to power, as witnessed by Haffner before he went into exile. Sebastian Haffner Raimund Pretzel (27 December 1907 – 2 January 1999), better known by his pseudonym Sebastian Haffner, was a German journalist and author.