I for one don't see how Good 'Ol Abe could have been Gay. The man had no sense of fashion, and had an unkempt beard.
But, then again, he did seem to enjoy going to the theatre...Hmmm...
Author Claims Abraham Lincoln was Gay
by Kenneson 14 Replies latest jw friends
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googlemagoogle
everyone is gay, but some seem not to know about their secret orientation... stop being hetero you perverted b@st@rdos!
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Kenneson
Insomniac,
I feel that if Lincoln was gay when he married Mary Todd, he was being deceitful by marrying her in the first place. If he continued to be promiscuous after marriage, he was hardly being faithful to her (whether his affairs would have been with men or women). What kind of role model would he have been to other married men? He led a public life, so what he did in private (if it proved scandalous) would have an effect in that arena as well. I don't find that kind of behavior acceptable either from my pastor or my leaders or anyone else.
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jgnat
I would be very interested if there is any documentation to back this claim, such as letters or private journals. I suspect, rather, that this conjecture will be backed by rumor, inference, and innuendo. Is this conjecture based on his natty dress? His effeminate hands? His ability to speak and write eloquently? How reliable can gossip be, if it is made up 140 years after the events? We also have to remember that if Abraham said, "I am gay", he was probably referring to his mood after a particularly fine party, not his sexual orientation.
I was very interested in the medical forensics on the Medici family. Ancient rumors were proved false, when forensics pointed to a braver, yet more mundane end to their lives, rather than intrigue and murder fabricated about them later.
http://www.taphophilia.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=1968So, tell me, was there a shooter on the grassy knoll?
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/arnold2.htmOh, yes, 140 years ago, not everybody could afford a bed. They did not have central heating. It was far more normal than today to share, platonically.
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Jankyn
There's nothing new about this claim. The first time I came across it was in the late '70s--Jonathan Katz, Gay American History.
Other posters are right that the evidence is ambiguous, and even if we could talk to Lincoln, he undoubtedly wouldn't describe himself as "gay," not because there's anything wrong with it (to quote Seinfeld), but because that's not the way that 19th century Americans understood sexuality.
It would be absolutely correct to say that Lincoln had deep and important emotional relationships with other men--see 'We Are Lincoln Men': Abraham Lincoln and His Friends, by David Herbert Donald. To describe those relationships--even if they involved some level of physical/sexual intimacy, as gay, is imposing 20th-21st century understandings of sexuality on 19th century people.
One thing that most historians agree on: Mary Todd Lincoln was most definitely not the great love of Lincoln's life; his most widely reported and intense romance was with a woman who died before he ever met Mary Todd.
Jankyn