IUC Exclusive: On Presidents Day IUC Outs America’s Gay Founding Father
You may have noticed that the nation’s most beloved President’s mug was removed today from the poll below this post. In honor of Presidents Day and the 200th birthday of the 16th President, IUC is outing Lincoln as America’s gay founding father. The late historian, C.A. Tripp, alleged in the controversial book The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln that Lincoln was more attracted to men and that the women in his life were invented by biographers (his infatuation with Anne Rutledge) and his affair with Mary Owens and marriage to Mary Todd was not true love. Tripp and other historians have argued that Lincoln’s first real love was Joshua Speed, the young store owner he moved in and shared the same bed with after moving to Springfield, Ill.
Tripp’s allegations were made long after many other historians spun the same theory. In fact, it goes back decades. In 1926, it was alluded to in a Carl Sandburg biography that said Lincoln’s relationship with Speed had “a streak of lavender, and spots soft as May violets.”
Lincoln might be the nation’s vision of liberty and equality more than we all even realize.
- 23 Comments
- Tags: Abraham Lincoln
Let’s see Spielberg include THIS in that biopic!
ReplyI don’t think he has the balls to do it.
ReplyFrom NNDB:
– Certain scholars, notably C. A. Tripp, make the highly dubious argument that Lincoln was gay based on his close friendship with Joshua Speed. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin (who spent ten years writing a book about Lincoln) notes that many figures of the time exchanged affectionate letters that, if taken in the context of the 20th century vocabulary and idiom, one might consider as evidence of homosexuality. However, in their correct context, this view is totally false — otherwise a large percentage of the ruling cognoscenti would be gay, and no one makes that argument. [Interview, Charlie Rose, 19 December 2005.] Incidentally, regarding Tripp’s book, Philip Nobile in the Weekly Standard accuses Tripp (who died in 2003) of plagiarism and predetermined bias. The two were originally to collaborate on the work, but this became untenable once Tripp’s intentions of fitting the facts were clear. Nobile’s article ends, “the fraud and the hoax of C. A. Tripp’s The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln are no way to explore the hallowed ground of history.” –
No further comment.
ReplyTripp’s allegations were made long after many other historians spun the same theory. In fact, it goes back decades. In 1926, it was alluded to in a Carl Sandburg biography that said Lincoln’s relationship with Speed had “a streak of lavender, and spots soft as May violets.”
ReplySonny – yeah cos no significant figure in history could be gay right? That would be totally unthinkable. All the significant men and women of history were heterosexual without doubt as all homosexuals are capable of are the arts and fashion.
ReplyIan, that “Buy an Asian girl” ad is disgusting and offensive, is it even legal? Get rid of it.
ReplyJanet where did you see that ad – I completely agree with you. An ad like that is totally reprehensible. Was it a google ad?
Reply@Keane:
Keane darling, please don’t get me wrong: I can tell you I have absolutely no problem at all with Alexander the Great, Socrates, Julius Cesar, Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, Andy Warhol, Benjamin Britten, Leonard Bernstein, etc. etc., being gay (or bi). It’s just that there’s documented reality on one hand and baseless speculation on the other hand. Questioning Lincoln’s sexuality just happens to belong to the second category.
ReplyBut as gay people have had to live their lives in total secrecy for most of history for fear of either being imprisoned or ostracised by society how would this have been documented or known? Even in the C21st there are millions of gay people who still stay in the closet for fear of what their family or wider society will think of them (there are many within my circle of acquaintance so multiply that with the number of people in the world and you get a lot of people). There is a much greater percentage of gay people in the world than most people think there are because of this high proportion who conform to heterosexual norms or remain in the closet. If you look at it from the basis of statistics alone there have to be a far higher number of gay people within history than are currently known. And the fact that most gay people had no choice but to marry and keep their sexuality secret means that this would be almost impossible to prove. I have no knowledge of the predilections of Abraham Lincoln but I am sure it is more likely than not that at least some of our past and current leaders were and are gay or bisexual, whether this could ever be proved is another story.
Reply@Keane:
Keane darling, I love your sophistry. I’m seriously beginning to suspect myself (so to speak) of being a closeted gay, you know. After all, I enjoy the sight of beautiful men in movies. What do you think?
ReplySonny – whatever!
Reply@Sonny:
Why? Did you know him personally?
He’s as open to speculation as everyone else. Stop being such a snob.
Reply@egm:
So let’s see where your existential speculation will lead you, sugar.
ReplySonny – using fancy words only impresses if you use them in the right context darling. Just saying!
ReplyCarl Sandburg was a great admirer of Lincoln, and as an artist, he had an innate sensitivity to beauty and delicate feelings. So his viewpoint is impressive to me.
Another poet, Walter ‘Whitman, had to invent female significant others because interviewers were speculating about his sexuality.
Whitman volunteered as a hospital worker during the Civil War. His nurturing presence was appreciated by, among others, teenage casualties brought to his attention.
And there are reports of military male to male “lovers quarrels” during that period.
With all that, I could easily tolerate Lincoln being bi. It does not depreciate his greatness at all.
ReplyJesus, Ian. The next thing you’ll try to peddle was that Alexander the Great was gay. Christ! You’re full of surprises!
And how about those gay rumors about Condi, eh?
ReplyActually, I emailed Ian telling him Moses was gay. I wrote my thesis based on it. Got an A plus.
Reply@Jillian G.:
Well, I remember that some guy wrote a whole thesis about Jesus’s homosexuality. Must be mentioned as a curiousity in the Wikipedia.
Reply@Keane:
As for me, I have no problem understanding what Sonny means.
ReplyMoody Blue – I understand what he means babe, its just that the words he’s using aren’t applicable in the context he’s using them in. In other words, Sonny thinks he’s a lot more clever than he actually is I’m afraid.
Reply@Moody Blue:
Thank you, Moody. What I meant to say actually is that indulging in empty speculation about who is/was gay or not reveals much about the posters’ existential issues and they should expect it to come back and bite them in the ass. Generally speaking, there is indeed something pathological in that tendency Americans – and especially the gay ones – have to reduce humanity to its sexual dimension.
Reply@ Sonny
And what I meant to say is the horror with which heterosexual people react when faced with the possibility that someone who doesn’t immediately scream lesbian or gay at them speaks volumes about our society’s latent homophobia. We’re all happy and comfortable with the effete, fey, artsy homosexuals such as Oscar Wilde, Andy Warhol and Rupert Everett. We can cope with dykey lesbians like Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O’Donnell and Pink. But throw in a few masculine men and womanly, feminine girls and suddenly we’re not so comfortable are we? The problem is most of the straight population of the world is so deluded about the number of gay people in it because so many of us keep it on the downlow or in the closet. Well, one day we’re all gonna have to wake up and smell the coffee. Gay people are in politics, in government, in your locker room, your college dorm and your family home, and you won’t necessarily know it. They look just like you and I. The notion that anyone ever knows exactly what everyone else’s sexuality is is unbelievably naive and arrogant.
Reply@Keane:
What you say reminds me irresistibly of that old TV series, you know, “The Invaders”. Do you think I should start paying more attention to my neighbors’ little fingers?
ReplySeriously, who do you think I am, some altar boy or what? I do know exactly who’s gay or not around me because I’m a bit of a psychologist, but in any case, when you’re seeing someone on a regular basis, those things can’t really be hidden – and why should they actually? I also know from experience that the caricatured representation of gayness that is largely spread in the media has very little to do with reality, thank you. So please stop projecting your frustration and bitterness on people you don’t know (me, for one), get some fresh air and find yourself a nice partner who’ll help you forget all those imaginary celeb friends or enemies you think you know everything about – through the likes of Ian Halperin, Ted Casablanca et al, all cynical charlatans whose everyday job on that gay bandwagon is just to exploit their readers’ (sometimes neurotic) credulity.
In other words: live!