Columns
Stonehenge to Stonewall
Hail to the Chief
A gay president? Hey, it might already have happened.
Okay, there’s been no First Gentleman, no state banquet to celebrate Gay Pride Day, and no rainbow flag out in front of the White House. But the case can be made that at least two American presidents were gay: one of our best and one of our worst.
Log Cabin Republican
You have probably heard the rumors, floated mainly by the acerbic Larry Kramer, that Abraham Lincoln, certainly one of our best presidents, was gay. You might wonder on what he based this claim. After all, Lincoln was married and had children, and he certainly doesn’t look gay. Where did Kramer get this stuff, anyway?
Well, it seems that when he was 28, Lincoln shared a bed with a younger man named Joshua Speed. In his letters, Speed writes about their three years together above the general store in Springfield, IL: “our Abe is like a schoolgirl (he) often kisses me when I tease him, often to shut me up. He would grab me up by his long arms and hug and hug.” In his famous biography of Lincoln, Carl Sandburg notes that Lincoln and Speed “had a streak of lavender and spots soft as May violets.”
They remained lifelong friends, although both, as society demanded, got married. (In their letters to each other, they referred to their miserable marriages as “forebodings!”) Another historian claims that Lincoln had “numerous homoerotic relationships throughout his life.” Believe it or not, there are actually rumors of Lincoln dallying with Marine guards in the White House. (Shades of Monica!)
It seems that historians have long known about Joseph Speed’s letters, but have ignored them. Interestingly, Kramer is joined in his claim that Lincoln was gay by KKK members who hate Lincoln for obvious reasons and are happy to call him a “sexual deviant.” (Talk about strange bedfellows!)
Even stranger still is the theory that the dashingly handsome John Wilkes Booth was a homophobe who had been “presented” to Lincoln by Joshua Speed. (How’s that for an assassination theory?)
Do-nothing Democrat
And from one of our best presidents, we move to one of our worst: James Buchanan (1791-1868). He diddled in the Oval Office from 1857 to 1861, while the country fell apart. Lincoln was left with his mess. He was the only bachelor president, as you might remember from school, and it turns out that he loved to party. (What more proof do you need that he was gay?)
Actually, he seems to have had a long-term relationship with William Rufus de Vane King (1786-1853), a senator from Alabama whom Andrew Jackson called “Miss Nancy.” They lived together for 15 years, and their relationship was often ridiculed in the press. King was called Buchanan’s “better half,” and was referred to in letters as “she.” He served all his life in government, eventually becoming our 13th vice president under Franklin Pierce in 1852. He served a very short time and died of tuberculosis in 1853.
What’s it all about?
At this point, you may be saying that an unhappy marriage does not necessarily indicate homosexuality. You may point out that “excessive statements of friendship” were common to the time, and that people of the same sex slept together for economy and warmth. (Of course!) You may argue that intimate friendships may not have had a sexual side. You may even be convinced that “gay” history is a crock, that every lead is a red herring, and that there are far more important issues to discuss.
But if any president’s personal life is worth examining—if FDR’s polio, JFK’s mistresses or George Washington’s wooden teeth are of any historical interest whatsoever—then sexual orientation is certainly a viable topic. Many aspects of the lives of our presidents had no bearing on how they did their job, yet they fascinate us.
After all, we are only doing what oppressed people have done for ages—finding our own heroes and heroines to admire. I happen to agree with Larry Kramer, who asks, “How can so many of us have lived on this earth for so long and left no history?” If we are not to be found in public life, where were we?
It is easy to document drag queens. They left an elegant, perfumed trail through history from the beginnings of recorded time to the present. It is the gay male who did not cross-dress who has been invisible. This figure is the man who married because he had to, lived a double life, and sneaked off to well-hidden bars or sex venues. These guys hid their traces well. They burned their letters. They had to, and it is our loss.
If looking for gay traces makes us feel better about ourselves, then why not do it? And who knows, it may just help our cause if Republicans eventually realize that Abraham Lincoln, the founder of their Party, was gay!
For further information: For this column I worked with information from www.salon.com, www.instepnews.com. Check these out.
Next time: Modern life on the reservation or, those wigwams had better have big closets.
Charlie Emond has a bachelor’s degree from Queens College and master’s degrees from both Dartmouth and Keene State. He teaches college history courses in Springfield and White River Junction. Stonehenge to Stonewall is syndicated by Above the Fold, LTD, info@abovefold.com.