Barack Obama: ‘The First Gay Print’? - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• WHO WAS OUR FIRST GAY PRINT?
• AMERI'S ONLY BACHELOR PRINT MAY HAVE BEEN ITS ONLY GAY ONE
• JAM BUCHANAN: AMERI’S FIRST GAY PRINT?
• BARACK OBAMA: ‘THE FIRST GAY PRINT’?
• NEWSWEEK VER: OBAMA ‘FIRST GAY PRINT’
• WAS ABRAHAM LLN OUR FIRST GAY PRINT?
• WOULD BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? MAYBE NOT.
• WAS JAM BUCHANAN AMERI’S FIRST GAY PRINT?
• OPN AMERI HAS ALREADY HAD A GAY PRINT
• PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS THERE HAVE PROBABLY BEEN GAY PRINTS. HERE'S WHY THAT THEORY IS COMPLITED
• OUR REAL FIRST GAY PRINT
• MEET DR. JSE EHRENFELD: A JEWISH VETERAN, AND THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PRINT OF THE AMA
• THE POLIL PERKS OF BEG 'THE FIRST GAY PRINT'
• LATVIA SWEARS EU'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PRINT
• MEET THE WORLD'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PRINT
• THE EVOLUTN OF THE NATN’S ‘FIRST GAY PRINT’

WHO WAS OUR FIRST GAY PRINT?

Google Jam Buchanan and you evably disver the assertn that Amerin history has clared him to be the first gay print. It don’t take much longer to disver that the popular unrstandg of Jam Buchanan as our natn’s first gay print riv om his relatnship wh one man particular: William Ruf DeVane Kg of Alabama. In the sh to make new meang of the past, I have e to unrstand why today has bee rigr to nsir Buchanan our first gay print.

But by then, an unrstandg of homosexualy as a sexual inty and orientatn had begun to take hold among the general public.

” In the November 1987 issue of Penthoe Magaze, New York gossip lumnist Sharon Churcher noted the fdg an article headled “Our First Gay Print, Out of the Closet, Fally. Updike creatively imaged the boardghoe life of Buchanan and Kg, but he admted to fdg few “trac of homosexual passn. Centuri of reprsn of homosexualy the Uned Stat has erased untls number of Amerins om the story of LGBT history.

AMERI'S ONLY BACHELOR PRINT MAY HAVE BEEN ITS ONLY GAY ONE

Worse still, movg Buchanan and Kg om iends to lovers blocks the way for a person today to assume the proper mantle of beg our first gay print.

You may have seen the other ntroversial newsmagaze ver this week, the one where Newsweek dubbed Print Obama “The First Gay Print“. But as Jim Loewen at the History News Network would like to remd , even if Obama were gay, he wouldn’t be the first: more than 150 years before the Uned Stat had s first black print, had s first homosexual manr chief.

JAM BUCHANAN: AMERI’S FIRST GAY PRINT?

Loewen is one of several historians who believe that Jam Buchanan, who served om 1857 to 1861, was fact our first gay print. And while Loewen not that Obama’s stance on gay marriage is a wele parture om our recent past, to tout morn Amerin society as more tolerant than any our history is a claim that has yet to pass the tt of time.

The tete-a-tete found their letters is among the most tertg I have seen om policians of this you, as a scholar, have reason to believe or spect that eher Buchanan or Kg was gay or bisexual? The classifitn of heterosexualy and homosexualy as sexual orientatns do not bee wispread until the end of the 19th century.

I adm that the kd of answer we want is elive -- gay, bisexual, straight -- and I am hant to impose a ntemporary worldview on 19th century social relatns... By this lens, I don't see the evince for Buchanan beg eher gay or bisexual, and I generally read him as "straight-actg, straight-lookg, " spe the claims of others who thk him clearly to be gay. That this half of the rrponnce (Buchanan to Kg) do not survive is unfortunate, but has more to do wh Kg as a rerd keeper and the ravaged state of post-war Alabama than anythg "emotnally non-heterosexual, " I take that you mean homoerotic.

BARACK OBAMA: ‘THE FIRST GAY PRINT’?

There has never been an openly gay print of the Uned Stat, but some historians have argued that Jam Buchanan, the only print who never shared the Whe Hoe wh a first lady, may have had feelgs for a member of the same sex. It would not have been unual, nor would have proved Buchanan not to have been gay, if they had married; history is filled wh homosexual men who married straight women. Jam Loewen, a proment Amerin soclogist and historian, has been outspoken his claims that Buchanan was the first gay print, wrg a 2012 say:.

NEWSWEEK VER: OBAMA ‘FIRST GAY PRINT’

Loewen has argued that Buchanan's homosexualy is not often discsed morn tim bee Amerins do not want to believe that society was more tolerant of gay relatnships the 19th century than they are now.

Although has long been mored that Richard Nixon had a homosexual affair wh his close iend Bebe Rebozo, Buchanan is still the most likely ndidate for first, and only, gay Amerin print.

Thanks to his vol support of gay marriage, Print Barack Obama did earn the tle briefly, albe symbolilly, a May 2012 Newsweek magaze article, wrten by Andrew Sullivan.

WAS ABRAHAM LLN OUR FIRST GAY PRINT?

Ta Brown, edor--chief for Newsweek at the time, explaed the term and the ver photo of Obama wh a rabow halo superimposed over his head by tellg news se Poli, "If Print Clton was the ‘first black print’ then Obama earns every stripe that ‘gaylo’ wh last week’s gay marriage proclamatn.

WOULD BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? MAYBE NOT.

Lln has e unr speculatn as well as havg had gay or bisexual affectns, but he did marry and father four children.

Keepg md the logistics of provg this for certa, we n reasonably nclu that Jam Buchanan was gay (th he would be our "first gay Print"). In terms of firsts, we n’t prove other past Prints or Vic weren’t gay, but there is no evince to suggt any before Buchanan and Kg were.

Not everyone fully aggrs Buchanan was gay, but to be fair people thought Rock Hudson and Liberace (who was oddly nservative spe the name) were straight. Put simply, historians are almost posive that Buchanan and Kg were gay and a relatnship, although is easier to prove their relatnship than other specifics.

WAS JAM BUCHANAN AMERI’S FIRST GAY PRINT?

More than 150 years before Ameri elected s first black print, most likely had s first gay print: Jam Buchanan.

“There’s no solid proof that Buchanan was heterosexual, nor is there solid proof that he was homosexual, ” Clarke said.

OPN AMERI HAS ALREADY HAD A GAY PRINT

But Clarke said he wouldn’t object if a volunteer offered a personal opn that Buchanan was gay, if asked by a visor.

PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS THERE HAVE PROBABLY BEEN GAY PRINTS. HERE'S WHY THAT THEORY IS COMPLITED

But Loewen said those flaws shouldn’t disurage members of the LGBT muny om acknowledgg Buchanan’s stat as a gay man.

"And now, there’s Barack Obama, dubbed “the first gay print” by Newsweek over the weekendThe acpanyg say was penned by The Daily Beast's Andrew Sullivan, who wr that " four years Obama went om beg JFK on civil rights to beg LBJ: om givg upliftg speech to actg ways to make the spirg words a realy. "Sullivan, who is gay, scrib Obama’s “evolutn” on gay rights as the latt example of Obama “leadg om behd and playg the long game. ”Sullivan also draws a parison between the gay experience and Obama’s own search for racial inty:“Barack Obama had to e out of a different closet.

He had to disver his black inty and then rencile wh his whe fay, jt as gays disver their homosexual inty and then have to rencile wh their heterosexual fay. The Ameri he grew up had no space for a boy like him: black yet enveloped by lovg whens, tranged om a father he longed for (another mon gay experience), hurtlg between beg a Barry and a Barack, needg an Amerin racial inty as he grew olr but chafg also agast and over-embracg at tim. ”“This is the gay experience: the disvery adulthood of a muny not like your own home and the stggle to belong both plac, whout displacement, whout alienatn.

OUR REAL FIRST GAY PRINT

”The full say is onle here; the magaze go on sale "First Gay Print" ver on the heels of a different provotive ver by Time Magaze, which last week ed a photo of a woman breast-feedg her young son to illtrate s ver story on "attachment parentg. It won't be nearly as ntroversial as Time magaze's breastfeedg ver, but Newsweek's May 21 issue clar Barack Obama the untry's "first gay print. The magaze even giv the manr--chief a rabow, Sullivan wr, "had to disver his black inty and then rencile wh his whe fay, jt as gays disver their homosexual inty and then have to rencile wh their heterosexual fay.

"The full ver story is not yet onle, but a blog post published earlier this week, Sullivan wrote that Obama's support of gay marriage brought him to tears:I do not know how orchtrated this was; and I do not know how lculated is.

What I know is that, absorbg the news, I was uncharacteristilly at a loss for words for a while, didn't know what to wre, and, like many Dish rears, there are tears my let me simply say: I thk of all the gay kids out there who now know they have their print on their si. I thk of the centuri and s which gay people found impossible to believe that marriage and cln their own fai was possible for them, so cshed were they by the weight of social and relig prsure. I thk of the gay parents who now feel their print is behd their sacrific and their love for their terview chang no laws; has no tangible effect.

MEET DR. JSE EHRENFELD: A JEWISH VETERAN, AND THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PRINT OF THE AMA

Obama's journey on this has been like that of many other Amerins, when faced wh the actual realy of gay liv and gay relatnships.

I was the room long before the 2008 primari when Obama spoke to the mother of a gay son about marriage equaly. That's why we elected New Yorker, which is also out wh a ver story on gay marriage, took a b more subtle approach wh s May 21 issue. News stori:• How Whe Hoe gay marriage claratns are affectg other Democratic ndidat• Time breastfeedg ver sparks ntroversy• Will Obama's Julia celebrate a gay marriage?

Scholars have bated whether Lln suffered om a host of physil ailments, whether or not he was clilly prsed, and — perhaps most trigugly to some — if Abraham Lln was gay.

THE POLIL PERKS OF BEG 'THE FIRST GAY PRINT'

An accatn of this sort uld even lead to ser prison time, so ’s no surprise that the historil rerd om the 19th century is sparse openly gay public figur. For many years, a kd of gay-revisnist history has been wrten, which this or that historil figure is held up to tense scholarly scty and clared by one activist historian or another to have been gay, transgenred, or bisexual. It’s evable that virtually all of the proment homosexuals of the Victorian Age would go to extreme lengths to keep their affairs as private as possible, and this mak hont scholarship on the subject challengg at bt.

Today, an vatn om one man to another to live and sleep together would almost evably be assumed to be homosexual nature. From the mixed rerds we do have, an distct picture n be drawn that pats the 16th print as anythg om a eply closeted homosexual to an enthiastic heterosexual. After readg about the evince about whether or not Abraham Lln was gay, vis our post on the fotten story of the Lln assassatn and tertg facts about Lln you’ve probably never heard before.

LATVIA SWEARS EU'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PRINT

In a recent terview wh polil news se Axs, 2020 printial ndidate Pete Buttigieg claimed if elected, he probably would not be the first gay print of the Uned Stat.

Alexanr Gardner / APPerhaps the most equently mentned name discsns of homosexualy and the princy is one-term Print Jam Buchanan, elected a young man, Buchanan was engaged to Anne Coleman, the 24-year-old dghter of an iron magnate, but she died before the two tied the knot.

Buchanan was reported to have never openly urted a woman after Coleman’s ath and died a bachelor at the age of observers suggt that Buchanan may have been gay, potg to his relatnship wh Alabama Senator William Ruf Kg. “I would never a ln years ll Jam Buchanan gay, ” Jam Downs, profsor of history at Connecticut College, told NBC News. “Men have been timate relatnships wh men, ” he clarified, “but they are not ‘gay, ’ they are men who had sex wh men.

MEET THE WORLD'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PRINT

”“The notn of beg gay is brand new ncept that don’t [emerge] until the late 19th, early 20th century, ” and, he add, was only a sexual inty that uld be claimed proudly the s after the 1969 Stonewall uprisg. Balcerski lled this “fdg a able gay past, ” and ’s what he believ motivat the impulse to clare that Jam Buchanan was gay. “The kd of answer we want is elive, ” Balcerski admted, but he argued to make a statistil argument based on ntemporary surveys of sexual and genr inty, or to e the term “gay” to refer to timate same-sex iendships or same-sex romance is to impose a ntemporary worldview on 19th century social also downplays the signifince of Buttigieg’s ndidacy.

THE EVOLUTN OF THE NATN’S ‘FIRST GAY PRINT’

“Buttigieg is the first to actually say ‘I’m gay, and this is my partner, and this is when I me out, ’” Downs said. More than 150 years before Ameri elected s first black print, Barack Obama, most likely had s first gay print, Jam Buchanan (1791-1868).

“If elected, you would be the first openly gay print of the Uned Stat, ” Stephen Colbert said to Pete Buttigieg after the mayor of South Bend, Ind., clared his ndidacy. While the characterizatn of beg openly gay or “out” is relatively new, the fact is the Uned Stat has already had a gay print whose ntemporari knew : Jam Buchanan. Andrew Jackson referred to Kg as “Miss Nancy”— a phemism for a gay ntemporari lled Kg Buchanan’s “better half, ” and one ngrsman referred to him as “Mrs.