It came to my attention today that it was the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth – which is handy because a) I seem to be in the middle of a series on February birthdays, and b) I know a fact about Abraham Lincoln. (ALSO, and this is a very exciting fact, it’s the 200th anniversary of the birth of the much-ballyhooed Charles Darwin, too – fancy that.)
As well as being one of America’s greatest presidents, having the world’s strangest beard and history’s tallest hat, there are mutterings and whispers that Abraham Lincoln was, well, y’know. ‘One of them’. A bit of a whoopsie, as Stephen Fry might say.
Here is the damning evidence against family man Honest (ha!) Abe:
When Lincoln was 28, he moved to Springfield, Illinois and shacked up with th
ree men, one of whom, Joshua Fry Speed, shared Lincoln’s bed. But given that it literally was a shack and had only one bedroom, this was perhaps more of a practicality than a lifestyle choice. BUT, when Joshua announced he was moving away four years later, Lincoln dumped his fiancée and suffered a bout of clinical depression, which was only cured when he went to stay with Joshua. Joshua then got married to some woman so Abraham convinced the jilted fiancée to marry him after all. It’s a lovely story, really.
And THEN, once he was president, Lincoln and his bodyguard David Derrickson shared a bed whenever Mrs L was out of town. (Or so the story goes – perhaps she fled town having discovered her husband and bodyguard in bed together.)
I’ve also heard that the show at Ford’s Theater on the fateful evening of 12 April 1865 was ‘An Audience with Liza Minelli’, but have yet to verify that claim.
As well as being one of America’s greatest presidents, having the world’s strangest beard and history’s tallest hat, there are mutterings and whispers that Abraham Lincoln was, well, y’know. ‘One of them’. A bit of a whoopsie, as Stephen Fry might say.
Here is the damning evidence against family man Honest (ha!) Abe:
- In an episode of The Simpsons, he pinches Homer’s bottom. Fact.
- He slept with men.
- ‘Abraham’ sounds like ‘Gaybraham’.
When Lincoln was 28, he moved to Springfield, Illinois and shacked up with th
ree men, one of whom, Joshua Fry Speed, shared Lincoln’s bed. But given that it literally was a shack and had only one bedroom, this was perhaps more of a practicality than a lifestyle choice. BUT, when Joshua announced he was moving away four years later, Lincoln dumped his fiancée and suffered a bout of clinical depression, which was only cured when he went to stay with Joshua. Joshua then got married to some woman so Abraham convinced the jilted fiancée to marry him after all. It’s a lovely story, really.And THEN, once he was president, Lincoln and his bodyguard David Derrickson shared a bed whenever Mrs L was out of town. (Or so the story goes – perhaps she fled town having discovered her husband and bodyguard in bed together.)
I’ve also heard that the show at Ford’s Theater on the fateful evening of 12 April 1865 was ‘An Audience with Liza Minelli’, but have yet to verify that claim.
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