Historians have long debated whether Abraham Lincoln, considered one of the greatest American presidents, had romantic and sexual relationships with men. A new documentary, Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln, concludes that he did.
“Our greatest president, our greatest military genius, the man who saved the Union, was also deeply in love, sexually and emotionally, with other men,” says Thomas Balcerski, a professor at Occidental College and Eastern Connecticut State University, in the documentary. “These relationships are not ‘So what?’ — they are defining, because this is an individual who struggled his entire life to make sense of this duality within him.”
Director: Shaun PetersonWriters: Joshua Koffman, Grace Leeson, Shaun PetersonStars: Thomas Balcerski, Michael Bronski, Jack Halberstam
Using interviews with historians, documents and re-enactments, Lover of Men examines Lincoln’s relationships with four men: Billy Greene, Joshua Speed, Elmer Ellsworth and David Derickson. Lincoln moved to New Salem, Illinois, in 1831, having grown up in Kentucky and Indiana, and quickly became friends with Greene, a cousin of the local schoolteacher. The two shared a small cot above the shop where they worked. Film historians believe both men enjoyed the relationship.
Bed-sharing was also the case for Joshua Speed, who owned a shop in Springfield, where Lincoln moved a few years later. Since Lincoln lacked money for materials for a bed, Speed invited him to share a bed above his shop, and Lincoln quickly accepted the offer. “It was lust at first sight,” says Michael Chesson of the University of Massachusetts at Boston in the documentary.
The arrangement with Speed lasted four years, during which Lincoln, as a lawyer and state legislator, saw his income rise to the point where he could have lived and slept elsewhere — but he didn’t. That refutes the argument that bed-sharing was a matter of convenience — though it was for some men of the time, according to historians featured in the film.
The relationship with Speed helped shape Lincoln’s political views, the scholars say. Speed came from a wealthy, slave-owning family in Kentucky, and after moving back to Kentucky to run the family plantation, Lincoln visited and saw firsthand the oppression and suffering of enslaved people, while their masters lived in luxury.
Speed and Lincoln eventually married women, but marriage was expected in the mid-19th century, especially for men seeking to rise in politics or business — and that doesn’t mean Lincoln lost his same-sex attractions. In fact, according to several of the historians, sexual fluidity was better accepted then than in the 20th and 21st centuries, which saw the rise of established categories of heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual identity, and religion and science helped pathologize any identity that wasn’t heterosexual. In the 19th century, they say, it was recognized that a person could be married and still exert other attractions. And sodomy laws applied primarily when the act was nonconsensual.
The film also looks at Lincoln's later affections for men. Colonel Elmer Ellsworth became famous as the first casualty of the Civil War in 1861, when he was fatally shot after tearing down a Confederate flag from a hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, just across the street from Washington, D.C. Lincoln was heartbroken and even spent a night next to Ellsworth's body.
In 1862, as he pondered what to do about slavery, Lincoln often took refuge in a cabin at his disposal in Washington, where he worked on the Emancipation Proclamation. There, Captain David Derickson became his bodyguard and bedmate when Mary Todd Lincoln was not with him. A letter from the time, read in the clip accompanying the film, discusses the relationship between Derickson and Lincoln, and historian Jean Baker says she is happy that Lincoln was physically affectionate with Derickson.
Why do some object to the idea of Lincoln having romantic and sexual relationships with men? The answer, historians conclude, is simply homophobia. “We can all agree that Abraham Lincoln is one of the greatest, if not the greatest president in American history,” Balcerski says. “But what if I told you that Abraham Lincoln is what we would call queer today? Would that still have a place in your heart?”
Lover of Men is directed by Shaun Peterson, who wrote the film with Joshua Koffman, Grace Leeson and Robert Rosenheck, and opens in theaters Sept. 6. Visit LoverOfMen.com to find a theater near you and order tickets.
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