The Gay Side Of Abraham Lincoln Alluded To In Major New Film

[Jingthing]

OK, we'll never know all the facts about iconic civil war president Honest Abe's sexual orientation, but we do know there were some interesting clues.

In the major new film Lincoln starring Daniel Day-Lewis, that ambiguous aspect of Lincoln is not ignored.

“Do we choose to be born? Are we fitted to the times we’re born into?” the Great Emancipator wonders aloud, gazing tenderly at the young man.

http://www.slate.com...thing_else.html

The screenplay author of the film is Tony Kushner, award winning gay playwright of Angels in America.

The film has just opened in the USA, and a release date for Thailand (if any) has not been announced.

Edited November 17, 2012 by Jingthing

[BookMan]

Is this the one involving vampires?

[Jingthing]

Is this the one involving vampires?

Absolutely not!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmZw00rtgM8

This new one is a much more important (and based on the reviews) and better movie (and directed by Steven Spielberg).

http://www.rottentom...m/lincoln_2011/

A different image of Lincoln than we're used to seeing:

http://www.flickr.co...ian/3484673613/

Edited November 17, 2012 by Jingthing

[transam]

Amazing tosh. It was Jesus last year. .......................

[Jingthing]

Amazing tosh. It was Jesus last year. .......................

Nobody is suggesting he identified as gay in the same way a modern gay man would. There are just some known facts about his life that point to a homosexual side of him whether he did anything about that or not. Interesting that you mention Jesus though. From an American perspective, Lincoln is seen as a kind of messianic president.

I have not yet seen the film of course but my understanding is the film doesn't pretend to assert he had a gay side or not, but presents that aspect of his life as a possibility, which really doesn't contradict history. A major Lincoln historian worked closely with Kushner on the script.

Edited November 17, 2012 by Jingthing

[KarenBravo]

Sounds like the writer is just "projecting".

Pure fiction and possibly wishful thinking.

[transam]

Amazing tosh. It was Jesus last year. .......................

Nobody is suggesting he identified as gay in the same way a modern gay man would. There are just some known facts about his life that point to a homosexual side of him.

Look forward to next year when perhaps Winston Churchill or Laurence of Arabia will get their turn of gay fame.

[Jingthing]

Sounds like the writer is just "projecting".

Pure fiction and possibly wishful thinking.

Maybe its wishful thinking to assume he was totally straight? Again, the movie doesn't say he had a gay side. It doesn't say he didn't either. Based on what historians know, that is exactly the right way to portray him. The movie is not pure fiction as it is deeply rooted in the historical facts. However it is not a documentary either. Edited November 17, 2012 by Jingthing

[KarenBravo]

Look forward to next year when perhaps Winston Churchill or Laurence of Arabia will get their turn of gay fame.

Dear me.......you should study history. Laurence of Arabia really was gay and a masochist to boot.

[transam]

Look forward to next year when perhaps Winston Churchill or Laurence of Arabia will get their turn of gay fame.

Dear me.......you should study history. Laurence of Arabia really was gay and a masochist to boot.

You new him, cool.

[KarenBravo]

Look forward to next year when perhaps Winston Churchill or Laurence of Arabia will get their turn of gay fame.

Dear me.......you should study history. Laurence of Arabia really was gay and a masochist to boot.

You new him, cool.

Re-read my first sentence.

[Payboy]

Don't think Lincoln would want to be anywhere near a theatre again.

[Jingthing]

BTW, allusions to a gay side of Lincoln are not new, and existed well before the gay liberation movement in the U.S:

Writing of Lincoln's long term male bed mate Joshua Speed, three time Pulitzer prize winning American writer Carl Sandburg in Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years (1926) wrote that their relationship had:

a streak of lavender and spots soft as May violets,

Edited November 17, 2012 by Jingthing

[transam]

Look forward to next year when perhaps Winston Churchill or Laurence of Arabia will get their turn of gay fame.

Dear me.......you should study history. Laurence of Arabia really was gay and a masochist to boot.

You new him, cool.

Re-read my first sentence.

I read it the first time. Strange how all these dead guys are now perceived to be gay by their own admission.

Now where is my WILL, I must make a statement in it.

[Jingthing]

Interesting that the evidence of Lincoln's gayness exists but is thin and very inconclusive (thus it will forever be controversial), a much better case for gayness could be made for the president that preceded him James Buchanan. However, he was a crappy president so there won't be any blockbuster movies about him!

Buchanan was the only bachelor president and lived with a certain Senator King for 15 years, described by Andrew Jackson as Miss Nancy. Oh my!

Edited November 17, 2012 by Jingthing

[JimmyTheMook]

Look forward to next year when perhaps Winston Churchill or Laurence of Arabia will get their turn of gay fame.

Dear me.......you should study history. Laurence of Arabia really was gay and a masochist to boot.

He was also and Englishman , who came to fight the Turkish.

[endure]

Look forward to next year when perhaps Winston Churchill or Laurence of Arabia will get their turn of gay fame.

Dear me.......you should study history. Laurence of Arabia really was gay and a masochist to boot.

He was also and Englishman , who came to fight the Turkish.

And who, apparently, was given a good seeing to by the Turkish

[Payboy]

Look forward to next year when perhaps Winston Churchill or Laurence of Arabia will get their turn of gay fame.

Dear me.......you should study history. Laurence of Arabia really was gay and a masochist to boot.

He was also and Englishman , who came to fight the Turkish.

And who, apparently, was given a good seeing to by the Turkish

That was during the original Arab spring.

[Jingthing]

Abraham Lincoln, Lawrence of Arabia, and Quentin Crisp went to a bar ...

(Forgot the punch line ...)

[kurnell]

Next thing you'll be telling me is that John Wayne was gay

[transam]

Next thing you'll be telling me is that John Wayne was gay

There probably is a looooooooooooooong list of dead guys .

[Jingthing]

Next thing you'll be telling me is that John Wayne was gay

No I won't. Edited November 18, 2012 by Jingthing

[KarenBravo]

Next thing you'll be telling me is that John Wayne was gay

Well........his real first name was Marion. Bit of a girly name, if you ask me.

[transam]

Next thing you'll be telling me is that John Wayne was gay

Well........his real first name was Marion. Bit of a girly name, if you ask me.

He must have been clever at birth to pick it eh.

[Payboy]

Next thing you'll be telling me is that John Wayne was gay

No I won't.

Of course he was gay. Why would he walk like that, otherwise?

[Jingthing]

Back to Lincoln, assuming he had a "thing" for Joshua Speed, which I do believe but we can't know if he had a sexual thing, what a great name for a boyfriend and/or a modern pop star, Joshua Speed!

Interesting that he appears to be an ectomorph, like Lincoln (and Obama ).

Edited November 18, 2012 by Jingthing

[Exsexyman]

Look forward to next year when perhaps Winston Churchill or Laurence of Arabia will get their turn of gay fame.

Dear me.......you should study history. Laurence of Arabia really was gay and a masochist to boot.

Well, Winston Churchill's original Sandhurst Military Academy file described him as, "An idle layabout and a confirmed sodomite who was a menace to the younger boys".

[transam]

Look forward to next year when perhaps Winston Churchill or Laurence of Arabia will get their turn of gay fame.

Dear me.......you should study history. Laurence of Arabia really was gay and a masochist to boot.

Well, Winston Churchill's original Sandhurst Military Academy file described him as, "An idle layabout and a confirmed sodomite who was a menace to the younger boys".

, they would wouldn't they. Bit like those who went over the top and were called cowards cos they used their heads lying amongst the thousands of dead to stay alive.

[Jingthing]

Does anyone still think there is really NO evidence of a gay side of Lincoln?

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 egg it is laid but Natty’s 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

Author: Abraham Lincoln, boy from the frontier

Age 20

Thought to be the first reference to gay marriage in U.S. history.

There is also a known quote from Lincoln's stepmother that he wasn't interested in girls.

The four years in the same SMALL BED with Joshua Speed as a young man can be explained away (sort of) as rough frontier custom.

But it was also well known that President Lincoln, in his 50's, slept in the same BED as his young man bodyguard David Derickson, when his certifiably INSANE wifey was away and that Derickson enjoyed wearing Lincoln's nightshirt. How gay is that? Really.

I can't find any images of David Derickson. Too bad.

The movie mentioned in OP is about a part of Lincoln's life as president and the character of Derickson is depicted in it.

Edited November 18, 2012 by Jingthing

[mogandave]

Wow, the first Republican president was gay.