A forth-coming biography of Lincoln closesly analyzes the private life of our greatest president and explores numerous theories about the nature of his relationships with Mary Todd and various male friends. It concludes that one of our greatest presidents was homosexual. Fascinating and controversial!

Seeking gay threads in Lincoln's legend

by Dinitia Smith

The subject of the 16th president's sexuality has been debated among scholars for years. They cite his troubled marriage to Mary Todd and his youthful friendship with Joshua Speed, who shared his bed for four years. Now, in a new book, C.A. Tripp says that Lincoln had a homosexual relationship with the captain of his bodyguards, David Derickson, who shared his bed whenever Mary Todd was away.

The book, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln, is to be published next month by Free Press. Tripp is a psychologist, influential gay writer and former sex researcher for Alfred Kinsey, the pioneering U.S. sex researcher. In the book, Tripp tries to resolve the issue of Lincoln's sexuality once and for all.

The author, who died in 2003, two weeks after finishing the book, subjected information written by and about Lincoln to minute analysis. He concludes that Lincoln, one of America's greatest presidents and the beacon of the Republican Party, was gay."The length of time when these men continued to sleep in the same bed and didn't have to was sort of an impropriety," Baker said.

The question of Lincoln's sexuality is complicated by the fact that the word homosexual did not find its way into print in English until 1892 and that the concept of being gay is a modern one.

Baker said the focus of 19th-century moral opprobrium was masturbation, not homosexuality. "Masturbation was considered more dangerous," she said. "For homosexuals, there was a cloud over them, but it seldom rained." People, she noted, "were accustomed to these friendships between men...."

December 16, 2004 in Books | Permalink

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