kinklock:

The model for Raffles was George Ives, a Cambridge-educated criminologist and talented cricketer according to Lycett. Ives was privately homosexual, and although Hornung “may not have understood this sexual side of Ives’ character”, Raffles “enjoys a remarkably intimate relationship with his sidekick Bunny Manders.”

I both can and cannot believe that the first ever Sherlock Holmes fanfiction drew additional inspiration for the character from another gay man 

Indeed! Raffles and Bunny were also inspired by Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas. Sooooo gay.