Conversations – The Gay President?
Shortly after our most recent presidential election, Slate.com ran an article “So when will a Muslim be President? A guide to which minority group has the best chance to win the White House next.”
Author Mark Oppenheimer discusses the chances for women, Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, Hispanics, East Asians and of course gays and lesbians. He qualifies his remarks to stress “we’re talking about an openly gay president” [emphasis in original] (1). He opines it will be a good while, based on generational attitudes toward homosexuality.
He does, however, mention that we may have already have had a gay president. He’s alluding to theories that Lincoln was gay. In fact, there’s another potential candidate – James Buchanan. It’d frankly be ironic if both of them were gay – Lincoln is considered one of our best presidents, and Buchanan one of our worst. We gays don’t do things by halves!
Lincoln
The evidence is purely circumstantial. Historian C. A. Tripp “contends that Lincoln had erotic attractions and attachments to men throughout his life, from his youth to his presidency” (2). The primary evidence seems to be the fact that Lincoln shared beds a lot with other men, especially Billy Greene, Joshua Speed (with whom Lincoln shared a bed for four years), Col. Elmer Ellsworth and Capt. David Derickson.
Other scholars believe that such cozy sleeping arrangements did reflect a distinct emotional landscape for men, but didn’t necessarily lead to hot homo lovemaking. “There was a lot of male homoerotic desire in the middle of the 19th century,” says UC-Berkeley political scientist Michael Rogin. “There may be evidence of male-male desire, but that’s not gay. If ‘gay’ is going to mean anything it’s got to mean orgasms with other men. There’s got to be some sense of transgression and forbiddenness (3).
Another alternative interpretation: “in assembling his data, Tripp is more persuasive in highlighting the rigidity of modern attitudes toward male friendships than in proving anything about Lincoln’s sexuality” (4).
Still, there’s something deeply suggestive about the number of men with whom Lincoln shared a bed, the length of time he spent with them, and the various heartfelt and secretive letters that passed between them. Take Derickson, for example, one of Lincoln’s guards while Lincoln was President. Lincoln lived during an era when sharing a bed was not a big deal, but one wouldn’t expect the President to have to share! That implies he desired to do so, and what few records remain seem to suggest Lincoln and his various male bed partners were enthusiastic about the arrangements.
In the end, we’ll never really know. Heck, Lincoln lived when “gay” just meant happy, and the word “homosexual” hadn’t even been invented yet.
Buchanan
I can understand the appeal of Lincoln as gay; he’s widely recognized as one of our greatest presidents. James Buchanan, not so much.
A lifelong bachelor, Buchanan lived with Alabama Senator William Rufus King for years. Andrew Jackson referred to King as “Miss Nancy” and “Aunt Fancy.” They were also known as “Siamese twins,” which was apparently slang at the time for gay couples (5). Again, they lived during a time that predates our modern understanding of homosexuality and gay relationships. But who knows? If ever there was a candidate among our presidents to be gay…
Unfortunately, he wasn’t exactly a stellar president. How’s this for an indictment of his legacy?
Despite the fact that it was “obvious” that Buchanan was gay, Paul Russell says he chose not to include him in “The Gay 100″ — he just wasn’t anything to be proud of. (6)
History has not looked kindly upon Buchanan for his failures regarding secession and slavery (his presidency came right before Lincoln’s). Was the slide toward secession really his fault? It’s a complicated question, but his reputation as a president has suffered greatly for it.
He also sent troops after Governor Brigham Young of the Utah Territory in 1857. (How’s that for irony, if Buchanan is gay! Maybe this explains Mormon support for Prop 8 … maybe they’ve just been waiting for their chance to get back at the gays!) Unfortunately, Buchanan mismanaged most of the affair, and he was roundly criticized by Congress and the press (7).
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(1) Oppenheimer, Mark. “So when will a Muslin be President?” Slate.com. 12 November 2008. http://www.slate.com/id/2204472/ (retrieved 1 December 2008).
(2) Brookhiser, Richard. “Book Review: ‘The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln’ by C. A. Tripp.” The New York Times. 9 January 2005. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9f05e5d61439f93aa35752c0a9639c8b63 (retrieved 1 December 2008).
(3) Lloyd, Carol. “Was Lincoln gay?” Slate.com. 3 May 1999. http://www.salon.com/books/it/1999/04/30/lincoln/print.html (retrieved 1 December 2008).
(4) Orecklin, Michele. “All the President’s men.” Time. 10 January 2005. http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/10/lincoln.gay.tm/ (retrieved 1 December 2008).
(5) “Our Queer President.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. 15 October 1999. http://lindholm.jp/chinf_buc.html (retrieved 1 December 2008).
(6) Lloyd, Ibid.
(7) Poll, Richard D., and Ralph W. Hansen. “”Buchanan’s Blunder.” The Utah War, 1857-1858. Military Affairs (Lexington, VA) 25, 3 (1961): 121-131.
