On the crowded Metro ride back from the WorldPride street festival last night, our friend Erika said, “We learned a lot today! I didn’t know Abe Lincoln was gay.”

The Complimentary Spouse and I said indeed he was—and just one of many figures that have been sanitized for your protection.

The couple sitting directly in front of Britt and me overheard us and turned around. “Is that true?” one of them asked. “We’re history buffs,” she explained. “We’ve heard that but don’t know that much about it.”

“It’s true,” I said. “But with an asterisk.”

Since we were getting off¹ at the next stop, I had to give Erika and the history buffs the tl;dr. I’m in no rush this morning, so here’s a longer explanation of why Abraham Lincoln is considered to be gay.²

Setting the Record, Um, Not Straight

The most compelling evidence that Lincoln was gay was his intimate relationship with Joshua Fry Speed. They met in 1837 and lived together—and shared a bed—for four years in the apartment above Speed’s shop in Springfield, Ill.

Old Thinking: Nothing to See Here! 

Until recently, historians described Lincoln and Speed as lifelong friends and said their living arrangement wouldn’t have been peculiar at the time. For example:

Their intimacy is more an index to an era when close male friendships, accompanied by open expressions of affection and passion, were familiar and socially acceptable. Nor can sharing a bed be considered evidence of an erotic involvement. It was common practice in an era when private quarters were a rare luxury…. The attorneys of the Eighth Circuit in Illinois where Lincoln would travel regularly shared beds.

Doris Kearns Goodwin
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

New Thinking: Beyond a Bromance  

Now, keep in mind that historians have been omitting, underplaying, or obscuring the sexuality of LGBTQ people since—well, since there have been historians. But that’s starting to change, and a growing number of historians are challenging long-established straight-washed narratives. A more honest picture of Lincoln and Speed’s relationship is emerging, and it’s not as platonic as you were taught in school.

Lover of Men, a 2024 documentary, explores this in detail.

Lincoln is also thought to have had a relationship with several other men, including, most notably, David Derickson, his bodyguard from 1862 to 1863.³

Now, the Asterisk

Calling Lincoln gay is a bit tricky because the concept of homosexuality as we know it today—as an immutable characteristic, not just a behavior—didn’t exist in Lincoln’s time. We’re ascribing an identity to him that he wouldn’t have comprehended, let alone considered.

This is an issue for all LGBTQ historical figures, not just Lincoln. 

We use modern ideas to describe events and people from history. Joan of Arc? Feminist. Martin Luther and Galileo? What is excommunication if not a form of cancel culture?

So, Lincoln? Gay!

A Final Thought—From the Great Emancipator Himself

Lincoln certainly had nothing to say about gayness—his or anyone else’s—but he made it clear that we shouldn’t be beholden to precedent when new facts arise.

Speaking about the Three-Fifths Compromise:

I do not mean to say we are bound to follow implicitly in whatever our fathers did. To do so would be to discard all the lights of current experience—to reject all progress—all improvement. What I do say is, that if we would supplant the opinions and policy of our fathers in any case, we should do so upon evidence so conclusive, and argument so clear, that even their great authority, fairly considered and weighed, cannot stand.

Abraham Lincoln

That’s a mic drop.

A Few Fun Facts Just for the Hell of It

• Britt is one inch taller than Lincoln was.
• Lincoln, Britt, and I have all been known to sport beards. Historians have concluded that he never had a bitchin’ Village People horseshoe mustache like mine.
• There are at least 31 cities in the U.S. named Lincoln, but only two named Britt. They’re in Minnesota and Iowa. I only have one city: David, Neb.
• A 2012 horror film portrayed Lincoln as a vampire hunter.
• An original draft of the Gettysburg Address began with “What’s up, bitches!” and ended with “Yaaaas, queen!”

Four Score and Three Footnotes Ago

1. Getting off the Metro at the next stop. Get your mind out of the gutter. ↩︎
2. James Buchanan, Lincoln’s predecessor in the White House, is also widely thought to have been gay. ↩︎
3. He wasn’t the bodyguard at Ford’s Theater in 1865. I’ve never seen The Bodyguard, but Britt assures me it has nothing to do with Lincoln and Derickson. ↩︎