Thursday, March 26, 2009

Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? Some researches, to my surprise, say he was!

I was watching the History Channel this morning and was very surprised to hear that some researchers think Abraham Lincoln was gay. At first I thought it was just some wild way to induce viewers so I did a bit of research, and here's what I found....

QUOTE FROM CAROL LLOYD FROM HER ARTICLE IN SALON-COM's

IVORY TOWER... Was Lincoln Gay?

"The 28-year-old traveler was tall, with rough hands, a chiseled jaw and unforgettable, deep-set, melancholy eyes. He arrived in town, his worldly possessions in two battered suitcases, and inquired at a general store about buying some bedding. But the price was far beyond his budget. The strikingly handsome 23-year-old merchant took pity on the man and invited him into his own bed, free of charge, which happened to be just upstairs. The traveler inspected the bed and, looking into the merchant's sparkling blue eyes, agreed on the spot. For the next four years the two men shared that bed along with their most private fears and desires.

If this sounds like the opening of a homoerotic dime-store novel whose subsequent scenes feature fiery loins and ecstatic eruptions, hold your panting."

Read this whole story here.

Image via salon.com.

Here's some more information from Wikipedia.

FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN ONLINE - SPEECHES & WRITINGS...LINCOLN'S LETTER TO SPEED:

"Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed met in Springfield, Illinois, during the 1830s. Although Speed returned to his native Kentucky, they remained friends throughout life. In this letter, Lincoln expresses his thinking about slavery, which contrasted with Speed, who grew up on a plantation and owned slaves.

The year before Lincoln wrote this letter, the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed Congress, repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and opened the territories to slavery. The passage of this bill proved a turning point in Lincoln's career. As he observed, "I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again."

Springfield, Illinois
August 24, 1855

READ THE REST HERE.

THERE'S MORE INFORMATION FROM "THE STRAIGHT DOPE"

Dear Cecil:

In the recent debate around gay marriage, the Log Cabin Republicans have come up. I understand their deal is that Abraham Lincoln was gay and grew up in a log cabin, so they align themselves with his sexuality through endorsing his upbringing. Whatever. My question is, how valid is the allegation of Honest Abe being gay? I realize that "we may never really know," but my impression is that he was a rowdy skirt chaser in his youth. What evidence do we have that he chased pants as well? Surely having a harridan for a wife isn't evidence enough?

— Bill in Connecticut

READ THE REST HERE.

READ THIS 2005 REVIEW BY RICHARD BROOKHISER OF THE NEW YORK TIMES. HERE'S AN EXERPT...from C.A. Trip's book "Was Lincoln Gay?"

"Tripp surveys seven of Lincoln's relationships, four with men and three with women, as well as two episodes from his early life. The discussion of Lincoln's youth is worthless. Relying on Lincoln's law partner and earliest biographer, William Herndon, Tripp decides that Lincoln reached puberty when he was 9 years old. Since Kinsey concluded that early maturing boys tended to become witty masturbators with lots of homosexual experience, Tripp concludes the same of Lincoln. He claims even more for Lincoln's adolescence, including a source for his religious heterodoxy. ''Since Lincoln had already arrived on his own at the powerful pleasures of orgasm . . . one can be sure that like most precocious youngsters he was in no mood to give it all up for bookish or Bible reasons.'' One can be sure, if one is as credulous as Tripp."

READ THE REST HERE.

 

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