GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE November 4, 2011

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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

LGBT History Month

October was LGBT History Month. As part of this celebration of our heritage, honoring those who have come before and their efforts, the Gay People's Chronicle joined with dozens of other newspapers and magazines across the country in presenting a month of special features highlighting notable LGBT people throughout history.

This year, these features focus on people who have had an impact on the formation of our nation. No singers, no actors, no celebrities. The theme is "We Are America," discussing how LGBT people and their allies formed a more perfect union, a promise equality advocates strive to fulfill every day.

We ran out of October, but not out of history to honor, so here are the final two profiles for this year: a Founding Father whose pragmatism led to his understanding of the contributions of LGBT people, and an emancipator whose freedom may have extended past the bedroom door.

Abraham Lincoln: A life in the closet?

by Mark Segal

NATIONAL GAY HISTORY PROJECT

Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) may likely be the most studied and researched of the United States presidents. The first reference to him possibly being "homosexual" came from notable Lincoln expert Carl Sandburg in his 1926 biography, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years. In describing the early rela-

Abraham Lincoln

tionship between Lincoln and his close friend, Joshua Fry Speed, Sandburg wrote “a streak of lavender, and spots soft as May violets."

This line got historians talking about an issue from which many had previously shied away. Still, the biography was written in the early 20th century, a time when such topics were only discussed in whispers. But by including the line, Sandburg showed that he felt the relationship deserved acknowledgement. It wasn't until 2005 when the first book was published on Lincoln's relationships with men, C.A. Tripp's The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln.

Detractors of Lincoln's possible homosexuality, such as historian David Herbert Donald, often say there is no new evidence on Lincoln. Yet historians continue to draw fresh conclusions from Lincoln's letters. Those who attempt to refute Lincoln's possible "homosexuality" usually focus on one particular incident of the many--that supports the theory: his relationship with Speed. Yet history, like everything else, is open to interpretation and influenced by new findings. Bias also motivated the retelling of historical events. The best example of bias in American history is the story of Thomas Jefferson and his slave/concubine Sally Hemings, which was not accepted as a truthful account until 1998-and only after DNA proof. African-American citizens --not historians-led the effort to give Hemings her rightful place in history. Likewise with Lincoln, most historians have referred to isolated facts rather than the pattern of events in his life to tell his personal story. Will history once again prove historians wrong?

The poem

I will tell you a Joke about Jewel and Mary It is neither a Joke nor a Story

For Rubin and Charles has married two girls

But Billy has married a boy The girlies he had tried on every Side But none could he get to agree

All was in vain he went home

again

And since that is married to Natty

So Billy and Natty agreed very well

And mama's well pleased at the match

The it is laid but Natty's egg

afraid

The Shell is So Soft that it never will hatch

But Betsy she said you Cursed bald head

My Suitor you never Can be Beside your low crotch proclaims you a botch And that never Can answer for me

This poem, about a boy marrying a boy, is thought to be the first reference to gay marriage in U.S. history. A 20year-old man in rural Indiana wrote it 182 years ago. That young man was Abraham Lincoln. Most historians agree Lincoln wrote the poem as a joke or rebuttal to the lack of an invitation a friend's wedding, but how a backwoodsman conceives a boy-marriesboy poem in 1829 remains a question.

to

The poem was included in the first major biography of Lincoln, written by his law partner, William Herndon. Revisionists omitted it in subsequent editions. It didn't reappear in Herndon's edition until the 1940s.

Billy Greene

In 1830, when Lincoln's family moved to Coles County, Ill., he headed out on his own. At age 22, he settled in New Salem, Ill., where he met Billy Greene-and, as Greene told Herndon, the two "shared a narrow bed. When one turned over the other had to do likewise." Greene was so close to Lincoln at that time that he could describe Lincoln's physique. However, Lincoln was poor at the time and it was not unusual for men in poverty to share a bed.

Joshua Fry Speed

In 1837, Lincoln moved to Springfield, Ill., to practice law and enter politics. That's where he met the two men who would be his greatest friends throughout his life. One, Joshua Fry Speed, became his bed partner for a while; the other was law partner Herndon.

Beyond the revelation that Lincoln and Speed had an intimate friendship, little has been written about how diligently Speed worked for Lincoln's legal and political career. Speed's name popped up in many of Lincoln's legal filings and on the Illinois Whig Party's central committee. The two were almost inseparable. Most Lincoln historians agree this relationship was the strongest and most intimate of the president's life.

What they don't agree on is why they slept in the same bed together for four years when they had the space and means to sleep separately, as was expected of men their age. They were no longer young and poor. And this was a house with ample room, unlike the hotels that accommodated Lincoln and his team on the road; then, it was common to sleep two or more in a bed.

By 1840, both Lincoln and Speed--now 31 and 26-were considered well past the marrying age. Both bachelors reportedly were hesitant to tie the knot, but it was a defacto requirement to have a wife if you wanted to move in political circles--or at continued on page 10

President Lincoln's cottage, where he often slept with Capt. David Derickson, still stands at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C.