Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? A Penny for your thoughts…

Today, on the website Queerty.com, the question is posed and pondered that Abraham Lincoln was gay. And with this one assertion, Abraham Lincoln has officially “made it” into the modern pop culture psyche. Like all great Americans, some Brits, and celebrities such as Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Angelina Jolie, Orlando Bloom, Clay Aiken, Oprah, Anderson Cooper, Simon Cowell, Jody Foster, Steve Martin, Jenna Jameson, Mike Tyson, Mr. Clean, Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock,  and the Maytag Repairman – whose sexualities have all been up for debate in living rooms across the nation like parlor games, I suppose for Lincoln it was only a matter of time.

So what if Lincoln shared a cabin and bed for four years with his “mentor” and “loving friend,” Joshua Speed. Does that REALLY mean anything? Of course they had to cuddle, frontier nights were cold and beds were small. Isn’t this really the same male bonding dynamic exhibited in the critically acclaimed 1993 movie “Alive,” in which a South American rugby team resorted to desperate survival measures and Ethan Hawke’s character was given the directive, “Nando, you eat me first.”

What will come out next? That Lincoln was a Scientologist? That his wife, Mary Todd, was really his sister? That he was second runner up in a local “Log Cabin Idol” competition and was forced into law after career aspirations as a showman were crushed? That he had a tattoo of Harriet Tubman across his left thigh? That he was really Hispanic? Should we even really care?

“We can not escape history,” was one of old Abe’s more famous quotes. And while he cannot escape controversy, Lincoln will forever be a symbol of freedom. He delivered us all at our country’s darkest hour and beckoned us to be better, not just on the eve of the Emancipation Proclamation, but for every generation to come. Equality for all races, ethnicities, religions, creeds, nationalities, sexualities and universal beings will be a fight that we will have to continue for our legacy, our children’s legacy and Lincoln’s legacy. In the end, I don’t care if he was or wasn’t gay. But, if I find out he was a Scientologist, I’ll be pretty damn pissed.