Constantin Cavafy was a gay Egyptian-born Greek poet. Cavafy is one of the better-known modern (as opposed to ancient) Greek poets. He wrote in both Greek and English, gay British writer E. M. Forster having introduced Cavafy to English-speaking readers. According to his French translator, Marguerite Yourcenar, "Cavafy's poems are like Near Eastern cafes - you never see a woman in them." In 1996, Greek director Yannis Smaragdis created a film biography, Cavafy.

By developing his own individualistic style of poetry, Cavafy became one of the West's most important poets. Most of his best work, however was written after he turned forty - and published only after his death. His lover for a while was Anastasiades, but they seems to have not been long-term companions. Though he probably fell in love with young men from his own class from time to time, for example Alex Mavroudis, a poet and dramatist whom he met in 1903 on one of his few trips to Athens, there is no evidence that he even made his feelings known to them.

Though he was Greek, Cavafy never actually lived in Greece. In 1883 when Cavafy was twenty years old and living in Constantinople, he had sex with another man for the first time. It seems that during his stay Cavafy was initiated into sex by his cousin George and that he also experimented a little with the sexual opportunities afforded by the night life of the Turkish capital.

He was born in the Egyptian town of Alexandria, and died there, from cancer of the throat. As a young man there, he was discretely frequenting the quartier around the Rue d'Anastsi, where it was easy to find poor young Greek men who would provide sexual favours in return for small amount of cash. He bribed his servants to ruffle up his sheets at night so his mother would not realize he had not been home. Cavafy's longtime companion was Alexander Singopoulos, who became his heir.