I think anti-gay people can compartmentalize so that even if they were inclined to accept the evidence (which I think most wouldn’t be), the could accept Lincoln as a great leader, even though he was “flawed”.
Gradually, references to Lincoln by the GOP would slow and stop, I figure. References to Reagan eventually replace them entirely.
I imagine it would be rather like finding out that Jefferson had a black slave mistress. Shit happens, and perfect people don’t get to be President.
Regards,
Shodan
There will be many new variations of the old witticism regarding the length of a man’s legs.
What was YOUR point aside from introducing a bit of obnoxious incoherence to the thread?
If you have a point, make it in an understandable fashion and dial back, (dial WAY back), on the virulence.
[ /Moderating ]
I know (hope?) that you’re speaking from the position of a hypothetical homophobe and not your personal reaction, but it should be said that being gay doesn’t speak one way or another toward being a perfect person or not.
Let’s assume the OP is correct. We know we could never prove it.
Would the GOP stop advertising itself as the party of Lincoln. In the short term yes, over the years it would go back to advertising it.
There are always people that refuse to believe. People don’t believe HIV causes AIDS, people don’t believe prions cause Mad Cow Disease, so why should they believe this?
Also you have to understand culture and times. For instance, people today are so sensitive about nationality and race. Back in my day you weren’t. In fact when I was in elementary school on the first day, you stood up and said your name and where you “people were from.” Now it’d be like “Does it matter?” Of course it doens’t matter, it didn’t matter back then either, but back then we were nosy. 
Being gay has very little to do with your being good or jerk. For instance, the governor of New Jersey who was gay, whoever he was, was a TOTAL JERK. And as a gay man I don’t want him on my team, but you know what, he is, and some gay people are jerks and some aren’t. Take the good with the bad.
Prolly true, as the older Repubs die off and the younger ones (mostly) treat gayness with the shrug it deserves. It’d take a while, though.
Once, in 1960, for 20 minutes…
I’m not certain what could be found at this late juncture that would out-and-out, lock-solid “prove” that anyone–Lincoln, Douglas, or anyone else from the mid-19th century–was gay. As was said elsewhere on this board recently, the word “homosexual” wasn’t even invented until the 19th century. Would anyone have even had enough awareness about sexual orientation to confidently write “I am a homosexual” in the 1860’s? And short of that, I think there would always be some debate.
Even if a cache of Lincoln-to-anonymous guy love letters were found, there would be academic questions. We historians are always rather suspicious of “large caches of documents about a famous person or event suddenly uncovered” anyway. It’s not as if there haven’t been thousands of Lincoln scholars scouring every attic, library, and private collection of every single person who Lincoln even said boo to for decades. Who’d believe a big treasure trove of handwritten letters from Lincoln just “appearing”? I’d be suspicious even if the contents weren’t controversial.
So, I think there would be significant doubt from the very start, even among those who have no vested interest into whether Lincoln was gay. If those folks can’t be convinced, how can those who do be convinced?
I don’t think the GOP, or blacks, or whomever, would be badly shaken. As Shodan hints, they will probably say something like “Yeah, maybe he was gay after all. That’s unfortunate but he was still a pretty good president, you gotta admit.”
Some people might take it further: “He was gay, but he knew it was wrong and that’s why he hid it.”
I think the Jefferson/Hemmings thing is a good analogy. The reaction would be an acknowledgement that the man had flaws (from those who believe that homosexuality is a flaw).
Well, one famous expression would be changed to “Queer as a five dollar bill”. Personally, I wouldn’t assume he was gay, just more fundamentalist in his religious beliefs than I’d previously thought.
It worked for Willow Rosenberg.
Yeah I see that now. Sorry, didn’t mean to step on you.
The gay community would just say Two in a row!
(And that the 2nd one was much, much better.)
There are anti-gay Republicans who aren’t swayed by the revelation that they, themselves are gay. Any level of self-delusion that’s capable of coping with that wouldn’t even blink at someone from a century and a half ago.
If Abraham Lincoln was found to be a lover of midget porn, how would history view him?
Discuss.
The onlys such porn that I know of is a small reference in Juliette, or Vice Amply Rewarded, by the Marquis de Sade. (It actually refers to “dwarfs”, but close enough.)
But this was probably unavailable to Abe Lincoln.
It was published sometime in 1797-1801, then fairly quickly suppressed. And it was published in French – I don’t think there were any English translations until the 1900’s. Could Lincoln read French?
Keep in mind that 19th century Americans did not, in general, see declarations of love and such in the same light as 21st century Americans generally do.
Any search on Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed will show that these two men had a rather intimate friendship, but also one can discover that these types of relationships were, in general, not considered sexual, even though one might use language which would be interepreted as sexual today or do things like hold hands that is commonly seen as sexual.
Do a search for “romantic friendship” and “bosom friends” for examples of close, intimate, but non-sexual relationships, commonly same-sex.
19th century literature is replete with these types of relationships. One example that pops into mind is the British “Tom Brown’s Schooldays”, where two teen schoolboys have a very close friendship and even cuddle together, and, during a time of separation, one boy receives a declaration from “your affectionate friends”, or something like that, signed by the other boy and his mother.