Lover of Men is an upcoming documentary film directed by Shaun Peterson and written by Grace Leeson which explores the age-old question: was Abe Lincoln gay? Specifically, the movie examines Lincoln's relationship with four different men, with whom Lincoln shared clothes, sleeping arrangements, and deep emotional connections:
- David Derickson, Lincoln's Civil War-era bodyguard often stayed in his tent and wore his clothes
- Joshua Speed, Lincoln's former roommate and close friend, whose many correspondences were described by one historian as having a "streak of lavender, and spots soft as May violets";
- Billy Greene, another roommate from Lincoln's 20s who factually slept in the same bed with him and whose thighs Lincoln once described in writing as "as perfect as a human being could be";
- and Elmer Ellsworth, an army officer and close friend of Lincoln.
Which is all to say, this isn't just the fabulist fanfic of a random filmmaker. Multiple historians, including Dr. Jean J. Baker, author of Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography; Dr. Thomas Balcerski, author of Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King; sex psychologist C.A. Tripps, author of The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln; and even Gore Vidal have all been pushing the Queer Lincoln theory for at least two decades.
Of course, "homosexuality" as a term didn't technically exist during Lincoln's lifetime. But that doesn't mean that there weren't queer people or that there were no men who had sex with men; instead, the idea of homosexuality that existed in binary contrast to heterosexuality had not yet been defined. Then, men married women, but that had nothing to do with whatever sexual activity took place between consenting adults. As a recent Vanity Fair article on the documentary puts it:
The implicit question posed by the documentary, taking its evidence in totality: Why would you assume that Lincoln didn't sleep with men?
Skeptics point to the customs surrounding living arrangements in the 19th century. Men of that era frequently, publicly slept in the same bed together as a means of convenience or money-saving. Yet as a new wave of historians argue, the knowledge of this practice has stood in the way of exploring that dynamic's more multifaceted implications. "What's been problematic is the gate-keeping that's surrounded Lincoln historiography by august generations of Lincoln scholars," Dr. Balcerski says. The sexual mores of the period weren't so simple: While public romances between men were forbidden, the private realm wasn't quite so surveilled. "When people say, 'Oh, it's impossible that the words homosexual and heterosexual were not widely used back then, that doesn't make any sense,' I'm like, 'Well, just look at what's changed in the past 20 years,'" says Dr. Lisa Diamond, a professor of psychology at the University of Utah. "In many ways, Western culture has defined being a man as being not homosexual. It's really Lincoln's image as a man that people feel is threatened by this intimacy."
Love of Men hits theatres on September 6, 2024.
Was Abraham Lincoln a Lover of Men? [David Canfield / Vanity Fair]
Previously:
• Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
• Strange snapshots of Abraham Lincoln
• Video interview with a man who witnessed Lincoln's assassination
• Trailer for Tim Burton's 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter'
• Abraham Lincoln's incompetent bodyguard
