Monday, January 24, 2005
Queen Lincoln
The January 28th issue of "The Week" carries the piece "Lincoln: America's first gay president?"
This refers to the new book ,"The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln" by the late, and gay himself, sex researcher C.A.Tripp.
So what hard evidence does Mr. Tripp have to support his findings the our 16th president was, in fact, the lover of the unfairer sex? Well, there's this:
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This refers to the new book ,"The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln" by the late, and gay himself, sex researcher C.A.Tripp.
So what hard evidence does Mr. Tripp have to support his findings the our 16th president was, in fact, the lover of the unfairer sex? Well, there's this:
"Beginning with his young manhood in Illinois, Tripp claims, Lincoln routinely shared his bed with other men. The first was Billy Greene, who remarked that Lincoln's "thighs were as perfect as a human being's could be."
Well that makes me question Mr. Greene's sexuality for sure, but not Lincoln's. As far as the bed sharing David Greenberg from Slate.com had this to say:
"Same-sex bed sharing" was common in the tight space of American frontier settlements. The rumor that he slept with his White House guard (Mr. Tripp's other claim) is based soley on two sources-a gossipy diary and a regimental history published 30 years after Lincoln's death."
The most devastating comment against Mr. Tripp came from Philip Nobile in The Weekly Standard:
"Trust me, I know: originally, I was Tripp's co-author. Our collaboration ended when I realized that Tripp insisted on seeing secret erotic overtones in every one of Lincoln's male frienships. For example, he seized on lincoln's use of the phrase "Yours Forever" in letters to speed (a male friend) as proof that they were lovers. But in the book he fails to mention that Lincoln used the same phrase in letters to a half-dozen other male friends. Tripp was no historian, but an "advocate" who saw the entire world through lavender lenses."
The New Republic online's Andrew Sullivan, another lavender advocate, weighed in on the controversy:
"Another way to look at it is that Tripp's own sexuality enabled him to see things that other Lincoln biographers had missed. Those of us who grew up secretly attracted to males can spot the telltale signs in others."
The only thing that bothers me is that homosexual advocates are using pretty flimsy evidence to call someone, who can't defend himself, gay. I know that the gay community thinks they need this to advance their cause, but this will only end up hurting them.
Instead of picking over the bones of the dead these advocates should be straight about what they're after.
# posted by Joe Florida @ 7:35 AM 
