President Malcolm Forbes

We have recently discussed Steve Forbes' presidential prospects but what about his father Malcolm? Let's say that Malcolm Forbes wins the New Jersey governorship in 1957 https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=40097 (in OTL the Democratic incumbent, Robert B. Meyner, defeated him by about ten points, but we'll have it as our POD that there is a serious scandal in the Meyner administration which allows Forbes to win). As governor of a major and closely contested state he would be an obvious possibility as a running mate for Nixon in 1960. Very likely he would enable Nixon to carry New Jersey that year--JFK in OTL only carried it by 49.96-49.16 https://en.wikipedia.org/…/United_States_presidential_elect… He might also have saved other closely contested states for Nixon by not making some of the mistakes Lodge did. (Campaigning in Harlem, Lodge promised that Nixon would appoint an African American to the cabinet. Nixon quickly repudiated that. Lodge's promise hurt the GOP in the South; Nixon's repudiation of it hurt the GOP with African American voters.) So Nixon and Forbes are elected. Now all we need is the usual assassination or helicopter crash...

OK, the obvious question in determining if this is a plausible scenario: How well known was it in 1960 that Forbes was gay?
 
We have recently discussed Steve Forbes' presidential prospects but what about his father Malcolm? Let's say that Malcolm Forbes wins the New Jersey governorship in 1957 https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=40097 (in OTL the Democratic incumbent, Robert B. Meyner, defeated him by about ten points, but we'll have it as our POD that there is a serious scandal in the Meyner administration which allows Forbes to win). As governor of a major and closely contested state he would be an obvious possibility as a running mate for Nixon in 1960. Very likely he would enable Nixon to carry New Jersey that year--JFK in OTL only carried it by 49.96-49.16 https://en.wikipedia.org/…/United_States_presidential_elect… He might also have saved other closely contested states for Nixon by not making some of the mistakes Lodge did. (Campaigning in Harlem, Lodge promised that Nixon would appoint an African American to the cabinet. Nixon quickly repudiated that. Lodge's promise hurt the GOP in the South; Nixon's repudiation of it hurt the GOP with African American voters.) So Nixon and Forbes are elected. Now all we need is the usual assassination or helicopter crash...

OK, the obvious question in determining if this is a plausible scenario: How well known was it in 1960 that Forbes was gay?


Not @ all; I mean I consider myself pretty
conversant with what's going on & what
prominent people these days IOTL are up
to & this is the first I've ever heard of this!
(These days stuff is unveiled that back in
the 1950's stayed securely under lock &
key)
 
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