What If President Lincoln Was Actually Gay?

Ehh, beyond that Lincoln loved to quote from the Bible, we don't know much except that his vague anti-organized religion rhetoric stopped suddenly shortly after his entry into politics.

I meant "group of people" in the loosest possible sense. Mainly that Lincoln did not go to church, as did many people during that period of time (on the borderline of the Second Great Awakening, which was, of course, in full mode by the time of Lincoln's ascension to politics), but he still considered himself a Christian and read the Bible (if only for quotes, who knows).
 
I meant "group of people" in the loosest possible sense. Mainly that Lincoln did not go to church, as did many people during that period of time (on the borderline of the Second Great Awakening, which was, of course, in full mode by the time of Lincoln's ascension to politics), but he still considered himself a Christian and read the Bible (if only for quotes, who knows).
I'm pretty sure Lincoln denied he was a Christian in his youth, but was vague about it later on.
 
As for Mary Todd's "odd behavior" after the assassination. You try staying sane when the man you love (Probably, who knows), your spouse for the last 22 years, is shot in the head when seated next-to-you during a play. I'm surprised she stayed as sane as she did (relatively, until the 1870s).

Especially since, as far as I'm aware, it's generally accepted that her mental health was in pretty bad shape before the assassination.
 

Perkeo

Banned
I see no difference in policy even between a 100% homosexual and a 100% heterosexual Abraham Lincoln. At the time this was to taboo a subject for a non-ASB coming out, even unvoluntarily.

Abraham Lincoln had a wife and he had biological children (I think it's been genetically proven, when they tested one of his descendants with his sister). So by modern standards, he fits the idea of a heterosexual male.

But did he act like a heterosexual male because of was a heterosexual male or because pretended to be a heterosexual male?

Lincoln knew the Bible through-and-through and he was a part of the group of people in the 19th century that didn't really belong to a church but considered themselves faithful Christians. So Lincoln was familiar with Pauline ideas about not 'lying with a man' as if 'with a woman' but who knows how he interpreted it. He certainly would later reinterpret the then-idea that the Bible supported slavery. And of course, at that time, there was no way you could 'lie' with a man in the same we you could be allowed to 'lie' with a woman.

But no matter how he interprets those Old-Testament/Pauline ideas, that doesn't make him the first or last hypocrite in politics, nor even the first or last man to be a genuine idealist in some aspects and a hypocrite in others.

What he did elsewhere is completely unknown and, as was pointed out, of no consequence historically.

That I couldn't agree more with. We neither now his true attitude, nor can I think of ANY consequence if it was different from whatever it was historically.
 
I have no idea about his sexuality, but I always thought Lincoln was an atheist, or a deist at best. He did frequently quote from the Bible, but I assumed quoting parts he actually agreed with was a way of covering for his lack of religious views.
 
Would a more or less openly gay person have had a better chance of becomming POTUS in 1860 than in 2012? I reckon it would be marginal enough, but an openly gay person would only have a slightly better chance of becomming so today and that would be virtually zero!
Re Lincoln being generally considered as 'Prima inter pares' in the list of greatest American presidents well practically every poll and considered commentary that has ever been done claims so! I'm by no means any sort of expert on the matter butI would certainly rate him numero uno with FDR second, and with my limited knowledge on the matter Washington third.
Ironic that his sucessor Johnson is often viewed as the worst POTUS by a long way!
Re the possible homosexuality/bisexuality of Lincoln and the possible contributing factor it may have been to his greatness, I am quite taken by the massive and fantastic contribution made by gay people particularily in the arts, which may come about in part from having a slightly different (but also an immensely valid) perspective on the world!
 
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