You think Lincoln was gay? Oh PUH LEASE…that is simply ridiculous. Aside from that, how in the world would this matter?
Yes, I do. I think he was either bisexual or homosexual. And I’m not the only one. In fact, some of his contemporaries of both sexes seemed to have implied in extant letters that they suspect so as well.
It is one thing for men of his time to live in log cabins together, sleep in the same bed with each other as means to stay warm. But I think it is another thing to sleep in the same with your commissioned Army officer that is your private bodyguard, while your wife, the First Lady, is out of town. Not once but every time she would leave out of town.
But my opinion about Lincoln - from what is inferred from what has been written about him - does not mean I can be certain. Though, I find it interesting your tone and diction indicates you are certain he was heterosexual. I think that is also telling as well.
It matters the same as it does the sexual orientations or sexual customs of the Spartans or Samurai (the Samurai may have been one of the most bisexual institutions in human history) does for purposes of history. It matters in this thread for reasons I stated in my previous post.
Do we know the sexual practices of ANY of our Presidents…well maybe Clinton and Kennedy but for the most part we have no idea about their private lives.
I never opined about the sexual practices of all U.S. Presidents. I gave my opinion about one U.S. President’s sexual orientation: President Abraham Lincoln.
As it is he is arguably the greatest President the United States ever had.
But that should shock you less than the history of homosexuality - and adult Navy men having sex with young boys working on U.S. Navy ships - of the 1800’s. The U.S. Navy was much more lenient then. In the British Royal Navy of the period a sailor could be given capital punishment for being found guilty of acts of homosexuality - let alone having sex with young boys. (The U.S. Navy was primarily Black-American back then - with the exception of the officer corps - and the Navy was akin to the biblical city of Sodom if some of the extant writings of sailors from that period are to be believed)
And that is the POINT. One cannot be private about skin color. To claim some kind of equality of bigotry with Jim Crow laws or the KKK is specious at best and insulting to those who died as a result of their skin color, or those who defended them to the death.
One cannot be private about their heterosexuality either. And believe me… I was shocked a year ago when I saw two young, white, male students on a busy school bus stop embraced and kissing each other. I was uncomfortable with it. But I grew up seeing boys and girls, men and women, romantically embracing each other and at times kissing.
I never stated or implied homosexual social and political struggles were one and the same as the racism Black-Americans faced during Jim Crow. What I stated was blacks, women, and gays play Identity Politics in the United States - and that various groups of people before them united around their own identities for social, political, and economic objectives. This is in part why it is typical in the United States for the American national identity to be hyphenated (e.g., German-American; African-American; Italian-American)
Here’s a suggestion…DONT SHARE YOUR PRIVATE LIFE and people will not make it an issue. DADT is a perfectly appropriate way for adults to live. I do not care if the people I meet are into fetishes or bondage or al fresco practices. Neither do I care about what those with SSA do in their bedrooms.
Heterosexuals that are married have essentially shared their private lives with the nation and the world for eons. If by “sharing” one means publicly acknowledging and flaunting your heterosexuality.
Again what is it about homosexuality that compels its practitioners to first shove it in our faces and then react in high dudgeon when people object to being privy to private activities?
Keep your sex life to yourself and you’ll probably find a lot less objection to it.
Being biracial (black and white) I recall when Mike McGee a former black alderman in Milwaukee, said on black radio, that black people have nothing against interracial marriages, but that they just don’t like people in these relationships flaunting it in their (black peoples) face. He went on to say that if a black man has a white girlfriend or white wife they should just keep that private and don’t come together to public events or picnics thrown by black people.
Why does your commentary remind me of McGee’s comments?
I’m not gay. And I’ll admit I feel uncomfortable around two homosexuals open display of affection. I also think the gay parades often rally around sexual fetishes.
