'Lover of Men': A New Documentary Tries to 'Prove' Lincoln Was Gay

There's nothing new in historians claiming that Abraham Lincoln was bisexual or gay. The "theory" took root in the 1970s during the gay awakening and has hung around on the fringes of historical scholarship ever since.

Now, a serious documentary purports to "prove" the point using newly unearthed letters, documents, and photographs. Abraham Lincoln slept in the same bed with men — a common practice in 1840s America where a judicial circuit rider like Lincoln would have been forced to share a bed with other travelers while practicing law — and also wrote "passionately" about male friends and acquaintances.

What the film, “Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln,” can't prove is that Lincoln had sexual relations with anyone but his wife Mary, who bore him four male children with only Robert living to adulthood.

The 1840s was a far different era with different mores and morals. Male friends bonded on an entirely different level than males do today. The fear of being seen as "gay" hardly existed in the 1840s. Men spoke and wrote more intimately of men than friends do today. It wasn't sexual. The intimacy and love were as intense as male-female bonds but without the sex.

Looking at Lincoln's actions through the lens of hypersexual 21st-century America, it's easy for a filmmaker with an agenda to "prove" Lincoln's sexual orientation. But this is a case of historical relativity. Reporting on Lincoln's sleeping arrangements with men is evidence of nothing. Sleeping with men later in his life wasn't a sign of gayness either. The film might reveal new attitudes by Lincoln toward his friends, but there's no "smoking gun" where Lincoln expresses his desire for sex with any man. If there were, the gay lobby wouldn't be able to shut up about it.

The movie's promo copy claims that the film delves “into the history of human sexual fluidity and focuses on the profound differences between sexual mores of the 19th century and those we hold today. The film fills in an important missing piece of American history and challenges the audience to consider why we hold such a limited view of human sexuality.”

Directed by Shaun Peterson, the film explores Lincoln’s deep ties with daring, dashing guys and includes interviews with historians from Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Wellesley and Rutgers.
One expert sums it up: “Lincoln probably slept in the same bed with more men than he did with women.”

This is ludicrous. Those Ivy League schools employ just as many idiot historians as schools with "lesser" reputations. The state of historical scholarship in higher education is abysmal.

We know this because any "expert" who made the idiotic statement that Lincoln "probably" slept with more men than women doesn't know the history, the social practices in the 19th century, or the sexual morals of the time. Lincoln slept in the same bed with men not because he wanted to get it on but because it was usually a necessity. And even when it wasn't necessary, there is zero evidence that Lincoln's attachment to men had anything to do with sex.

There's a famous scene in Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" where Ishmael shares a bed with the harpooner, Queequeg. The young sailor wakes up with Queequeg's arm around him and thinks, “you had almost thought I had been his wife.”

Try as Ishmael might, he couldn't get free of Queequeg’s “bridegroom clasp,” hugging him so “tightly.” Melville writes that the following evening Ishmael "waits impatiently for Queequeg’s embrace."

Was Ishmael gay?

Stanford Arcade:

As we know, in the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries men (as well as women) formed romantic friendships, modes of relationship that allowed much emotional, if not, physical intimacy. The letters and diaries from the Civil War, for instance, reveal men talking to each and about each other with much sweetness and warmth. This was true in earlier decades. The language of affection used by men to write to one another during the American Revolution would put it today in the realm of gay discourse.

Naturally, the notion that Lincoln was a closeted homosexual was irresistible for the posters on social media.

The North actually went to war with the South because Robert E. Lee misgendered Lincoln. https://t.co/2gGmI008Uc
— Adam Johnston (@ConquestTheory) July 12, 2024

A new documentary interviews serious scholars who claim that Lincoln was gay.

Serious scholar #3: pic.twitter.com/ALzs1tPrQo
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) July 12, 2024

“If you can accept a queer Lincoln, you can accept queer people overall.”

Yep, as long as they all have heterosexual marriages and children and stay in the closet, just like Lincoln, we can accept them!
— Pudge (@pudgenet) July 12, 2024