Was abraham lincoln gay or bi
Given the idolatry with which Americans worship the man widely seen as their greatest president, Abraham Lincoln, and the obsessive place that identity politics now occupies in the public spaces of the US, it was probably inevitable that the sexuality of American civil war winning ‘honest Abe’ would approach under revisionist scrutiny sooner or later. And now it has happened.
A current documentary film Lover of Men and a smack Broadway comedy Oh Mary! both suggest that America’s first Republican party president, who won the American civil war and emancipated America’s black slave population, was homosexual. So what does the evidence say? There is no direct proof that Lincoln ever enjoyed any physical sexual relations with other men. But there is plenty of evidence that he shared his bed with other men – though this was a more ordinary occurrence in the past. Lincoln common a bed with men both in his youth and as late as the American civil war in 1861-65, when he was a married human. He also got between the Alabaster House sheets with a soldier deputed to act as his bodyguard.
Rumours about the future president’s sexual inclinations began as early as the 1830s when Lincoln was an aspiring
Debunking the Myth That Lincoln Was Gay
“I’d been operational on Lincoln since 1973. But he’s such a profound man with such a wonderful sense of humor, so appealing, so he draws you in. He’s such a brilliant writer. Every story about Lincoln, whether it’s in the oral history, whether it’s something he wrote, it’s always interesting. He’s just an appealing human being. I don’t consider he was so conservative. On the other hand, he wasn’t wildly grandiose. There’s a difference. He was aware of his own greatness.” — Charles Strozier
This week, our featured book is Your Buddy Forever, A. Lincoln: The Enduring Friendship of Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed, by Charles B. Strozier. Today, for the closing day of the highlight, we are happy to present an excerpt of Strozier’s interview with Ronald K. Fried at The Daily Beast. Read the interview and accompanying article in full on The Daily Beast‘s website.
[Ronald K. Fried] spoke with Strozier at his Greenwich Village psychoanalytical office. The monitoring is an edited version of [their] conversation.
RKF: How common was it for men to share the same bed during Lincoln’s time?
Charles Strozier: Very com
Joan Cummins: Every day at President Lincoln’s Cottage we engage with visitors in conversation on difficult topics, from grief to slavery to American identity. Visitors, young and old alike, connect with us from next door and from around the globe.
Callie Hawkins: And occasionally, we receive asked a question on a tour that stops us in our tracks, one we wish we could spend a half hour answering. Some of these questions, on their face, seem innocent or simple, but on a second look they enclose a level of complexity that leaves us wanting to know more. Each episode, we’ll investigate a single real question a visitor asked us here.
JC: At President Lincoln’s Cottage, we’re storytellers, historians, and truth seekers, so we called on people whose expertise could speak to all the facets of these questions.
CH: I’m Callie Hawkins.
JC: And I’m Joan Cummins. This is Q&Abe. Come on down the rabbit hole with us
CH: Let’s take that half hour now. For this episode, we’re working on the question: “Was Lincoln gay?”
JC: Both times I’ve been asked this ask, I had a teenager come up to me as we were walking between locations on the tour and ask. I always feel honored when a y
Was Abraham Lincoln Queer?
by Dane Grams •
This age-old question continues to be debated today. And while the term “queer” as we use it didn’t exist in the 19th century, historians and documentary filmmakers are now making the compelling case that the 16th president of the United States had romantic relationships with men throughout his life.
Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln — a landmark recent feature film — can be seen in theaters nationwide on Friday, September 6th; Saturday, September 7th; and Sunday, September 8th. Purchase your tickets here, and part of the proceeds will benefit the Human Rights Campaign.
The clip examines the intimate existence of America’s most consequential president, Abraham Lincoln. As told by preeminent Lincoln scholars and with never-before-seen photographs and letters, it details Lincoln’s romantic relationships with men, including his four-year intimate relationship with his lifelong friend, Joshua Speed.
Lover of Men also widens the lens into the history of human sexual fluidity and focuses on the profound differences between sexual mores of the 19th century and those we hold today. It is not only an explorati
In the new documentary Lover of Men: The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln, a group of scholars argue that the 16th President of the Combined States had sexual relationships with multiple men during his life.
Here are nine pieces of historical evidence cited in Lover of Men.
But First
The obeying evidence comes from letters from Lincoln himself and the people who knew him, many of which are free to the general in the Library of Congress.
Lover of Men zeroes in on four different men with whom Lincoln at the very least had close friendships with, but at the most, could have had sexual relationships with. These include his general store coworker Billy Greene; army officer Elmer Ellsworth; Lincoln’s bodyguard David Derickson, and his finest friend, Joshua Speed.
There is no guide physical evidence that Lincoln had sex with men. While some scholars reason that he was gay or multi-attracted , there are others who disagree. Of course, Lincoln spent 22 years married to Mary Todd Lincoln, with whom he had four children.
We leave these letters up to your interpretation.
Billy Greene
First, there was William G. Greene, also known as Billy Greene. Lincoln worked with him