Was Abraham Lincoln gay? A new documentary suggests he was a 'lover of men'

Abraham Lincoln embodied everything that’s great about America: He was courageous, compassionate, wise and quite likely gay.

“Lover of Men” (in theaters now) is a revealing new documentary that delves into the idea that the 16 ^th U.S. president had multiple male companions throughout his life, even after he married Mary Todd Lincoln . The radioactive subject has been debated for decades on the fringes of academia, with scholars poring over letters and firsthand accounts from the time, and uncovering not unsubtle hints that Lincoln had meaningful queer relationships.

But more often than not, questions around his sexuality have been chalked up to mere “urban legend.”

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“We live in a homophobic society,” producer Rob Rosenheck says. “People keep talking about Lincoln's queerness as a ‘theory’ or ‘myth,’ but you need to acknowledge the fact that it keeps coming up over and over and over again. The reason for that is because it's part of our history and it won't go away.”

Some people ask, “Do we really need to get into his personal life?” director Shaun Peterson adds. “To me, there’s always a homophonic tinge to that. There have been thousands of writings about Lincoln and Mary having this fractured marriage. People are fine writing about a heteronormative relationship, but when it comes to the possibility of his love of men, it’s like, ‘Well, we shouldn’t dig that deep.’ ”

The new documentary suggests that Abraham Lincoln was sexually fluid

The documentary asserts that Lincoln had long-term relationships with several men, the first being Billy Greene, whom he met at a general store in Illinois, where he lived as a young man. Greene later told William Herndon, Lincoln’s law partner and earliest biographer, that he shared a narrow cot with the future president for roughly 18 months. Greene also described his physique in evocative detail, telling Herndon that Lincoln’s “thighs were as perfect as a human being could be.”

Communal sleeping was relatively common in the 1800s and did not always have the sexual connotations it does now. But even as his status rose as a lawyer and state legislator, Lincoln continued to share beds with other men, suggesting that bunking up wasn't a matter of financial necessity but something that Lincoln enjoyed.

“Why is it so hard for people to accept that there could be pleasure from physical intimacy?” says Tom Balcerski, a presidential historian at Eastern Connecticut State University. “We’re not in the Victorian era, and yet it sometimes feels like we are, in terms of the prudeness around this question.”

Lincoln’s most intense love affair was allegedly with store owner Joshua Speed, whom he met in 1837. They shared lodging and a bed for four years until Speed was called back to his family's home in Kentucky, devastating Lincoln. According to experts interviewed in the film, he fell into a deep depression and was put on suicide watch by his close friends, who took away his shaving tools.

Speed eventually married a woman, although he stayed in touch with Lincoln through amorous letters, which are housed in the Library of Congress and available to read online. Lincoln regularly signed his correspondence "yours forever."

“You can see the passion on the page,” Peterson says. “Lincoln would write things like, ‘I miss you’ and ‘I’m jealous of your new wife, Joshua.’ He pours his heart out in these letters. Nowhere else in any of Lincoln’s work have you seen anything quite like it.”

Lincoln wed Mary in 1842, but “it was a political marriage, first and foremost,” Balcerski says. “Was there sexual passion and arousal within the marriage?” That’s where it gets complicated: The couple slept in separate bedrooms of the White House, and had four children over the course of 10 years.

When Mary was away, Lincoln’s bodyguard, David Derickson, would often share his bed, according to a diary entry by Elizabeth Woodbury Fox, the wife of Lincoln’s naval aide. An 1895 book by Thomas Chamberlin, an officer in the regiment that guarded Lincoln, also mentioned the sleeping arrangement, and that Derickson would wear Lincoln’s nightshirts.

The president, like many people at the time, was probably what we’d now describe as sexually fluid.

“This next generation of Americans that we call Gen Z, they’re more queer and fluid than ever. They get this argument,” Balcerski says. “But talk about hitting your head against the wall trying to have this conversation with older folks.”

'Lover of Men' has already sparked controversy among online trolls

Coincidentally, “Lover of Men” arrives in theaters at the same time that Cole Escola’s “Oh, Mary!” is playing to sold-out crowds on Broadway. The dark comedy puts a deeply silly spin on Civil War history: imagining Mary as an alcoholic, wannabe cabaret star, and Lincoln as a closeted gay man pining for his bodyguard .

“It’s pure serendipity,” Peterson says. “The Lincoln gods have sprinkled a little magic on us. They're a nice contrast to each other."

The documentary has already ignited backlash among conservatives, with Ben Shapiro and Alex Jones decrying it on social media. The filmmakers hope naysayers will form their own opinions after they see the movie, which intends to shed a light on how queer history is continually suppressed or erased.

“I don't have an agenda,” Peterson says. “There's no part of me that says, ‘I want to convert people into being gay!’ I am a documentarian; I set out to look at evidence and make a case based on evidence. I wouldn't have made this movie if I didn't think the evidence was there.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Was Abraham Lincoln gay? A new documentary suggests he was a 'lover of men'