Was James Buchanan the first Gay President?

[Sandpiper]

I was watching the History channel's special on Presidents of the United States.

When covering James Buchanan thhey brought up the fact that there were rumors of his homosexuality throughout his life. A fact of which I was previously unaware.

While there was no conclusive evidence either way, what they do know was:


Buchanan never married (unusual for a prominent man who lived during the late 18th-early 19th century)

Buchanan lived together with another lifelong bachelor, Senator William Rufus King, for 16 years.


Interesting...

[Misunderestimator]

1. Hmmm... I hadn't heard that either...

it would be rather unusual in that period for a prominent man to not be married. Then again, for a gay man to not be married was probably even more unusual. :shrug:

[toymachines]

2. very interesting

i bet there is a good book abou that or something. it has peaked my curiosity.

[Must_B_Free]

3. He wasn't gay, just happy

[rodeodance]

6. any relation to Par B.?? just wondering

[Obviousman]

4. Well, knowing the right wing

The impeachment hearings will start next week...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. He did have a fiancee

who died. He had a twisted neck; some say because of an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

Of course, that doesn't mean that he was straight. He was very interested in being a successful politician, so it was unusual that he didn't marry.

[rodeodance]

7. recent book about Abe. L. suggests the same

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

14. Anne Rutledge

was a girl Lincoln was attracted to while living in New Salem. When she died from a fever, he was devistated and his friends basically kept a suicide watch over him.

[Lucille]

15. "The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln" calls the Rutledge story a myth

concocted by a Lincoln associate.

I say who cares, who knows, but here's a link for the book at Amazon.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

18. many other authors have said the same thing

especially since Lincoln was courting Mary Owen at the time he was supposedly in mourning for Anne.

[moggie12]

8. First Lincoln, then SpongeBob, and now Buchanan???

Who's next? Nixon??

[Misunderestimator]

9. Or Reagan... you know those pretty boy Hollywood types...

[AmerDem]

13. exactly

:kick:

[Zan_of_Texas]

17. SpongeBob? Is he dating Tinky Winky?

[UTUSN]

26. Well, NIXON Was Always by the Pool with Bebe REBOZO---Ewwww n/t

[nedlogg]

10. Every President . . .

who did not have sex in the oval office is suspect.

(Not that there's anything wrong with it.)

[Democrats_win]

11. Buchanan#15, A lot of buzz now about #16 :Lincoln being gay

"The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln" by Dr. C.A. Tripp http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/49/news-ireland.php

"Lincoln slept in the same bed for four years when both men (Abe & Joshua Speed) were in their 20s." Check out the link for "Lincolns gay marriage poem." Amazing, that the first Republican president wrote this.

Why does today's RepubliKLAN reject who they once were?

[bobweaver]

12. You mean you haven't rented "Blue Room Bad Boys" or "Oval Orifice" yet?

[Desperadoe]

16. Nah, Jimmy wasn't gay

Jimmy's niece, Harriet Lane was his official "First Lady" during his presidency. Harriet was a fine young lady of one of the finest families in Pennsylvania and was considered to be one of the most gracious and hospitable First Ladies to ever occupy the White House.

She cared for good ol' Uncle Jimmy until his final years and then, with her uncle's blessing, was married off to a fine, decrepit old millionaire from Baltimore.

Today they would have been fine, upstanding Republicans, just like the other fine families are in Lancaster, who also probably have nieces and nephews blessed with fine, upstanding Republican uncles.

Queer......I think not. Incestous.....most likely but, if you were to ask one of the local gay crowd at the Tally Ho, they would say he was queer as a three dollar bill. He's sort of a folk hero around her....for different reasons for different people.

[saltpoint]

19. Some accounts suggest that among a certain circle in --

-- DC Buchanan was known as "Betsy" Buchanan. I don't know if this is a confirmable fact or not.

Was the William Rufus King you mention the same William Rufus King who was Pierce's Vice President?

During Pierce's presidency his wife Jane did not live in the White House. She refused to come to live in the White House because she felt God had punished their family for Franklin's pursuit of the presidency. The penalty was the death of her children, but as penance she lived in near-isolation and not in the White House with her husband.

Not a lot of White House female presence in that decade leading up to 1860, is there?

[Sandpiper]

20. Yep, that's the guy

Pierce's VP was James Buchanan's roommate for 16 years.

[kskiska]

24. Bar Bush is a descendant

of Pierce, hence her maiden name, Barbara Pierce.

[saltpoint]

27. Ok, thank you for that. I read the name and wondered --

-- if it was the same person.

That had to be an extremely interesting time of our history.

[sabbat hunter]

21. how about

"Handsome" Franklin Pierce.

david

[bluestateguy]

22. If I was a gay activist, I would not want that to be true

He was one of the shittiest presidents in history. It wasn't his fault that the nation was coming apart, but he made NO effort to even try to resolve the crisis, even after 6 states seceeded.

[Desperadoe]

23. Buchanan Biography

Tall, stately, stiffly formal in the high stock he wore around his jowls, James Buchanan was the only President who never married.

Presiding over a rapidly dividing Nation, Buchanan grasped inadequately the political realities of the time. Relying on constitutional doctrines to close the widening rift over slavery, he failed to understand that the North would not accept constitutional arguments which favored the South. Nor could he realize how sectionalism had realigned political parties: the Democrats split; the Whigs were destroyed, giving rise to the Republicans.

Born into a well-to-do Pennsylvania family in 1791, Buchanan, a graduate of Dickinson College, was gifted as a debater and learned in the law.

He was elected five times to the House of Representatives; then, after an interlude as Minister to Russia, served for a decade in the Senate. He became Polk's Secretary of State and Pierce's Minister to Great Britain. Service abroad helped to bring him the Democratic nomination in 1856 because it had exempted him from involvement in bitter domestic controversies. <snip>

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jb15.html
__________________________________________________________________

"Nor could he realize how sectionalism had realigned political parties: the Democrats split; the Whigs were destroyed, giving rise to the Republicans.".............sounds like today's Republican Party is having the same problem as the Democrats did 150 years ago.

[saltpoint]

28. That's fair, and maybe more than fair. Poor Pierce.

He had a politically disastrous four years and his own party denied him re-nomination and went for Buchanan instead.

I think your assessment is pretty much right-on.

Plus, his wife was a religious nutcase -- even before the tragedies of losing their children, I mean.

The redeeming factor for Pierce is the way he treated people. He was by all counts an inspired and loyal friend to people. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Pierce were close and Hawthorne's son Julian virtually worshipped Pierce.

So I'm going to have to go easier on the guy from here in. A disastrous president but evidently a triumph as a person and friend.

[shrike]

25. I have friends of both sexes who never married and are not gay

But I agree -- why would an ambitious politician of this era not take a wife?

Then again, there are people in this world who don't care about sex. (I'm not one of them.)