Did Lincoln Like The Logs Better Than The Ladies?
A new book says Lincoln was gay, writes Paul Harris in the London Observer:
It is news guaranteed to make many Republicans squirm. Was Abraham Lincoln, founder of the party now seeking a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in America, actually gay himself?A new book, published next month, certainly thinks so. The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln by C.A. Tripp produces evidence that one of America's greatest Presidents had a long-term relationship with a youthful friend, Joshua Speed, and shared his bed with David Derickson, captain of his bodyguards.
Tripp, a former researcher for sex scientist Alfred Kinsey and an influential gay writer, includes asides by many of Lincoln's close friends. 'He was not very fond of girls, as he seemed to me,' his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, once told a friend.
It also includes a diary excerpt by one upper-class Washington woman who wrote of Derickson: 'There is a Bucktail soldier here devoted to the President, drives with him, and when Mrs L is not home, sleeps with him. What stuff!'
Scholars have long debated Lincoln's sexuality, and as early as the 1920s were making veiled references to his relationship with Speed. However, critics say that in the pioneer days men sleeping together in rough circumstances was not uncommon.
Now Tripp has discovered letters between Lincoln and Speed which supposedly betray a deep intimacy.
But Tripp's book really breaks new ground in its exhaustive portrayal of many of Lincoln's possible gay lovers, including one man who said Lincoln's thighs 'were as perfect as a human being could be'.
All that and ending slavery, too!
"Did Lincoln Like The Logs Better Than The Ladies?"
Are you implying that Honest Abe was into scat?
Lena-poo at December 21, 2004 8:22 AM
No, it was a cheap penis joke, of the vibrating but low-on-batteries variety. I do love the unintended double meaning,though. Like in sporting goods store ads that brightly advertise stuff with lines like "Take Time Out To Enjoy Water Sports!"
Amy Alkon at December 21, 2004 8:25 AM
Um, is anyone else thinking that this might be a little pathetic? (The books, and this sex-mongering sort of history, not the blogging. Cheap-penis-joke blogging is OK. Actually, that's why we're here.)
I'm jus' sayin', is there anyone who really thinks that boylove was a big part of this guy's life, or that there's anything to be had from these sorts of investigations beyond the "It's a gay world after all" kind smirking from the underfurnished offices of the weho social agencies?
Just sayin'.
Cridland at December 21, 2004 6:13 PM
At last, Crid and I agree!
eric at December 21, 2004 6:33 PM
I love the Lincoln Logs reference. Takes me back to my childhood, although not in the same vein as this story.
silo at December 21, 2004 7:45 PM
Yeah, I've been waiting for somebody at CBS to dig up Lincoln's phone records to prove it.
Jim Treacher at December 21, 2004 7:55 PM
That Lincoln was gay is a pretty old -- and discredited -- theory at this point.
Cathy Seipp at December 21, 2004 10:59 PM