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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE October 16, 1992
Safer Sex Mythology Series !!!.6
Myth:
66
We're in love now. We don't need condoms anymore.
66 Love doesn't stop HIV. only safer sex does. Talk to your partner. Using rubbers only shows that you care about both of you.
Fact:
WE GOT YOU COVERED!
99
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Was James Buchanan our only gay president?
by Brian Treglown
If 10 percent of the population is gay, as Kinsey claimed, one would presume that perhaps four of the 41 U.S. presidents should have been gay. While there is no evidence to confirm that number, there is strong support that at least one president certainly was. Not surprisingly, that president was the only "bachelor president." His name: James Buchanan.
Buchanan was born in the area around Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1791. His father was a prosperous merchant, and even though there were 11 children, the family was able to send James to private schools and then to law school. After graduation, he began his career as a lawyer, and quickly took an interest in politics. In 1815, at the age of 24, he was elected to the Pennsylvania legislature, the first of many positions he was to hold in his long political career. At about this time, Buchanan was dating Anne Coleman, daughter of a wealthy Lancaster businessman. It was assumed the couple would marry, but one day James was involved in what biographers call "an indiscretion." Exactly what the nature of his indiscretion was, we don't know. What we do know is that Anne Coleman called off the engagement in a fit of anger. She went to Philadelphia, ostensibly to visit friends and recover from the broken engagement.
While there, she became ill, and suddenly and rather mysteriously died. Suicide was mentioned, but there are no facts to substantiate it. Anne's father, still furious over James' “indiscretion,” refused to even let him attend the funeral. At the age of 28, James Buchanan had dated his last woman. He thrust himself into public life and became a confirmed bachelor.
The next year, Buchanan was elected to the House of Representatives, and his career as a national political figure began. He was a Democrat who believed in a strict, literal interpretation of the Constitution. He was also a good speaker, and slowly his reputation began to build.
Buchanan was a personable man with a large circle of friends. But he developed a special--historians use the word “intimate"--friendship with Rufus King, a senator from Alabama. The two men spent so much of their time together that Washington gossips called them the Siamese Twins. One columnist even referred to them as
BOOK
BOD
"Buchanan and his wife." Amazingly, the relationship seemed to cause no problems for either man politically.
In 1836, Buchanan and King moved in together. They remained roommates for the next 16 years; their friendship remained close but private.
In 1852, life changed dramatically for both men. Largely through Buchanan's influence on the Pennsylvania delegation, the Democrats nominated King for vice president. He was elected on a ticket with Franklin Pierce as president. Pierce then appointed Buchanan as ambassador to Great Britain. The two men were separated for the first time in many years. King became ill and died the next year.
Meanwhile, the slavery issue was tearing the nation apart. In 1856, the Democrats were searching for a candidate with the respectability of a statesman, yet someone whose position on slavery was somewhat undefined. Having spent three years in Europe on diplomatic missions, Buchanan met both requirements. So at the age of 65, he was nominated and easily elected president.
The Buchanan presidency was an unhappy one for Buchanan and for the nation. The North became strongly opposed to his policies because he was committed to preserving slavery. He reasoned that since the Constitution had been ratified specifically allowing slavery, he had no choice. Northerners also disliked the fact that most of Buchanan's friends and associates, including the deceased Rufus King, were Southerners. Yet the South opposed Buchanan's policies also. They could never really trust a Northerner as president during this tense period.
Somehow Buchanan successfully walked a tightrope for nearly four years, keeping the factions at a grudging peace. It wasn't until the end of his term, when the new Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln, that the South finally voted to secede. At the age of 70, Buchanan left the presidency, broken in health and in spirit. The war he'd tried so hard to avoid was imminent. He was denounced by both sides as having taken no action to avoid the conflict. Historians are also harsh in their assessment, although they concede that there probably wasn't much anyone could have done at this point. Scorned and alone, James Buchanan retired to his estate in Lancaster, where he died eight years later.
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