I’ve read in a few places now that there is some evidence to prove that Abraham Lincoln was gay. While I’m perfectly willing to accept that theory, I’m wondering what that evidence is supposed to be.
Jacques Kilchoer
Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.
Well, you gotta help us a little here. What are your sources? Having “read [something] in a few places” doesn’t give us much to work from…
I think you can safely file this story away with the “Mary Todd was really a man” rumor.
Wait a minute!
(laughing at above)
No, actually I’ve heard the same myself. I think there are two new biographies out that make such a claim. It was on the news a couple of weeks ago, but I wasn’t paying much attention. There was something about evidence of a gay relationship - not that there’s anything wrong with that.
I overheard the same claim on TV, but can’t remember the source.
Contestant #3
You know…maybe we should ask the Chairman of the board of the Rational Examination Association of Lincoln Land (REALL), our own David Bloomberg (alias Dave B). www.reall.org
I think that somebody else ought to e-mail the question though because he’s kinda pissed at me right now!
Most Sincerely,
Contestant #3
From the history books I’ve read, being married to Mary Todd would be enough to turn you gay.
“I wept because I had no shoes, then I met a man with no feet. So I took his shoes” - Dave Barry
According to the gay folklore I’ve heard, it was Lincoln’s predecessor James Buchanan who was gay. This is based on pretty tenuous evidence; Buchanan never married and he was a close friend of another man who never married.
I’ve never heard any claims that Lincoln was gay. He was after all married and the father of four children.
The “evidence” is this: for several years, as he was building his law practice, Lincoln shared a bed with another man (I don’t recall the name – either his partner or a friend of his).
Now, whereas in 1999, this would certainly be suspicious, in the 19th century frontier, when beds were expensive and scarce, it is meaningless. If you needed a place to stay, your friend would only have one bed to offer.
It was quite common for two men to use the same bed merely as a place to sleep and nothing more.
So the fact proves nothing, and the other facts of his life would indicate otherwise.
I’ve often maintained that the hardest thing to understand is that people in the past thought differently from us. This is just another example.
DrFidelius is right, I should have had more details than “I read somewhere”. I looked up my source and found the following (from the Washington Post):
Two upcoming biographies will make the claim that President Abraham Lincoln was gay. Sex researcher C.A. Tripp, author of “The Homosexual Matrix,” and Larry Kramer, founder of ACT-UP and the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, reportedly will present evidence that Lincoln had a lengthy and passionate affair with his best male friend, Joshua Speed. According to the New York Post, Kramer claims to have found a diary written by Speed that was hidden under the floorboards of a building that once housed Speed’s general store. The diary allegedly reveals details of the affair, although no one has been allowed to see it.
Kramer said such evidence has been around for many years but ignored by historians.
Neither book will be ready for publication in the near future.
Of course, being married and the father of four children is not proof of heterosexuality.
Jacques Kilchoer
Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.
Honest Abe gay? I dunno… I do know he was Jewish. He was, after all, shot in the Temple. (rimshot)
Being in Springfield, IL (where Lincoln spent most of his adult life and is buried), we’ve been a bit more exposed to this claim than perhaps most have. The most recent claim came in an article in Salon (online) magazine. A reporter at the State Journal-Register here in town looked into it a bit and wrote the following two articles: http://www.sj-r.com/news/99/05/16/b.htm and http://www.sj-r.com/news/99/05/16/c.htm .
Basically, this guy claims to have a mysterious diary that proves Lincoln was gay. Unfortunately, there are a number of problems with that claim (among them that he isn’t showing the supposed diary to anybody), all of which are discussed in those articles.
All in all, I wouldn’t put a whole lot of stock in the claim.
“It’s a very dangerous thing to believe in nonsense.” – James Randi
I doubt Abe was gay, but Nickrz might be right about Abe being at least part Jewish:
-Abraham is a biblical name from the old testament.
-He freed the black slaves, like Moses freed the Jewish slaves in Egypt.
-His facial appearance looked kind of Jewish.
Cheese? That was a joke, son.
(Sure tipoff: rimshot).
I know, that Confucius thing still has your mind reeling.
Well… I watched a special about Lincoln a while back, and it was on the History channel so it must be true! Anyhoo, according to this show, Lincoln may not have been Jewish but he denied the divinity of Christ and despised the New Testatment (although he quoted it when he said that line about a house divided against itself, etc.), and wrote and distributed pamphlets on the subject. But during his campaign, he was told to cool it, because the (newly-formed Republican) party was afraid they’d lose the Christian voters.
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
Back on the topic at hand (sort of, anyway), the History Channel program didn’t mention any stories of Lincoln being gay, but did relate several instances of him visiting female prostitutes. Why would a homosexual pay money to sleep with a woman? I think the program even suggested that Speed set Lincoln up with some of the women. Wouldn’t Speed have been miffed by his lover asking where he could get a woman? I don’t buy it.
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
I mean, I don’t buy that he was gay, not that he visited prostitutes. Cuz I do buy that. Ah, nevermind.
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
What would you accept as proof that Lincoln was a heterosexual? A video of him having sex with Pamela Anderson?
I’ve not heard anyone here speculate that he might have been bisexual, you know, a switch hitter…could explain things…
Contestant #3
Contestant #3 said:
Explain what things? There is nothing to explain until the person making these claims comes forward with the evidence he supposedly has. We really shouldn’t be trying to explain something until we’re sure there is something to explain.
“It’s a very dangerous thing to believe in nonsense.” – James Randi