Gay print 20 years off, says former U.S. Congrsman Barney Frank | Rters

Contents:

• 11 U.S. PRINTS WHO MIGHT’VE BEEN GAY
• AMERI'S ONLY BACHELOR PRINT MAY HAVE BEEN ITS ONLY GAY ONE
• PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS THERE HAVE PROBABLY BEEN GAY PRINTS. HERE'S WHY THAT THEORY IS COMPLITED
• OPN AMERI HAS ALREADY HAD A GAY PRINT
• IS AMERI READY TO ELECT A GAY PRINT?
• A PROCLAMATN ON LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, QUEER, AND INTERSEX PRI MONTH, 2023
• PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS 'S 'ALMOST CERTA' THAT THERE'S BEEN A GAY US PRINT THE PAST
• GAY PRINT 20 YEARS OFF, SAYS FORMER U.S. CONGRSMAN BARNEY FRANK
• IT’S ‘ALMOST CERTA’ WE’VE ALREADY HAD A GAY PRINT, SAYS PETE BUTTIGIEG
• WOULD BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? MAYBE NOT.
• THERE WON’T BE A GAY PRINT 2021. SO WHAT DO BUTTIGIEG’S CAMPAIGN TELL US?
• A GAY PRINT? THE MAJORY OF AMERINS BELIEVE THE UNTRY ISN’T READY
• A PROCLAMATN ON LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, AND QUEER PRI MONTH, 2021

11 U.S. PRINTS WHO MIGHT’VE BEEN GAY

)Consirg how much people love to speculate on who might and might not be gay — I thk ’s replaced baseball and oby as Ameri’s favore pastime — I was surprised I uldn’t fd a sgle list out about the potential closeted homosexualy of the U. Apologi to Elanor Roosevelt who would’ve ma the cut if I really need to fudge thgs… and also to Harry Tman, whose ployg of the Enola Gay was gog to be my emergency 11th pick if I uldn’t fd anyone better.

” That sounds, tabloid speculatn and beg one of the most pro-gay rights prints ever isn’t enough to ph him any higher on the list than last.

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

That beg said, a book lled Jack and Lem dug ep to his lifelong iendship wh a gay man named Lem Billgs… and at least threw some iffs to the mix. )Sce the man who was clost to LBJ for 25 years turned out to be gay on the down low (he had a wife and six kids; they separated a few years after the sndal) — speculatn surfaced that maybe there was somethg between Johnson and Jenks.

If the past ten years have tght anythg, ’s the lour a polician ralli agast gay rights, the more likely he is to wd up gettg ught sgg “Glory, Glory Hole-allujah. In 1953, Eisenhower signed Executive Orr 10450, which classified gays and lbians as potential natnal secury threats and banned them om workg for the ernment.

But I rearched every sgle print for this list — and when people do get around to jawg on Chter A., the homosexual thg keeps poppg up.

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

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:.

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.

OPN AMERI HAS ALREADY HAD A 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. Some of the most popular theori about whether there has ever been a gay print surround Print Jam Buchanan, one-term print om 1857-1861.

“It might be more accurate to say that there may have been prints the past who sired men, or had sexual experienc wh men… they wouldn’t have necsarily intified as gay a 21st century sense.

For Buttigieg to say that another print may have been gay the way that ’s unrstood the 21st century, “’s jt farcil, ” Balcerski says.

IS AMERI READY TO ELECT A GAY PRINT?

Even if the two had some sort of attractn to other men, they wouldn’t have intified as gay bee that notn of livg as an out gay man didn’t exist, both historians say.

“I thk that there were always gray areas and nuanc and plenty of possibili for men the late 19th and 20th century to have sex wh other men and not nsir themselv gay, ” Clev says. “I fd that the early 19th century, ironilly, almost prents an era where the same kds of pathologi [agast gay men] that will be prent all the way through the pre-Stonewall era aren’t que place yet. Balcerski says ’s important to chronicle gay history, but he says popular theori about the lik of Buchanan and Lln are too simplistic.

A PROCLAMATN ON LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, QUEER, AND INTERSEX PRI MONTH, 2023

“As we bee more and more terted broang the tt, so to speak, of LGBT history, what we fd is we’ve taken people, who for one reason or another, don’t f to a normative pattern of heterosexual marriage and we basilly put this label on them as gay, ” Balcerski says. “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.

PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS 'S 'ALMOST CERTA' THAT THERE'S BEEN A GAY US PRINT THE PAST

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.

At most uld suggt Buchanan was not openly discsg this moment, we fet that beg gay the mid-19th century did not tomatilly exclu a man om natnal learship. S., sorry, Pete Buttigieg, you n’t aim to be the first gay print, although you uld be the first married 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.

GAY PRINT 20 YEARS OFF, SAYS FORMER U.S. CONGRSMAN BARNEY FRANK

” 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.

IT’S ‘ALMOST CERTA’ WE’VE ALREADY HAD A GAY PRINT, SAYS PETE BUTTIGIEG

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. But he won’t be workg alone: The former vice print has already tapped LGBTQ appote for several key rol and gay rights advot are hopeful that more will be named, cludg the first out Cabet member nfirmed by the Senate. Tobar, a lbian, also worked as a munitns director for the Bin November, Carlos Elizondo, who is gay and was Bin’s social secretary when Bin was vice print, was named Whe Hoe social secretary.

WOULD BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? MAYBE NOT.

”In Febary, Tmp appoted a gay man, Richard Grenell, as actg director of natnal telligence, makg him the first out member of a printial Cabet. On the mpaign trail, he speaks of beg gay terms of fay valu, emphasizg he is a lovg, mted same-sex marriage, and what his ndidacy says about cln and equaly Ameri today. “Pete’s succs so far this mpaign reprents an evolutn Amerin polics, upendg tradnal notns of electabily and provg that Ameri is ready to elect s first openly gay print, ” Ellt Imse, munitn director at the LGBTQ Victory Fund, said.

“If Ain Amerins were sort of disproportnately cled to not vote for somebody who is gay, you would thk that would have shown up there as well, ” said David Barker, director of the Center for Congrsnal and Printial Studi at Amerin Universy Washgton. Man, ” wh Buttigieg’s same-sex marriage, and said Amerins are “still not ready to elect a gay guy kissg his hband on the bate stage [as] print. Mayor Pete, we're here to a recent terview, you said that "statistilly 's almost certa" that Ameri has had gay prints, but when prsed for nam, you murred, sayg, "My gaydar don't even work that well the prent, let alone retroactively.

THERE WON’T BE A GAY PRINT 2021. SO WHAT DO BUTTIGIEG’S CAMPAIGN TELL US?

Spent the morn equivalent of $120, 000 on we durg his first term as gay: May have served claret wh Inx: 14John Qucy AdamsGay: Regularly skny-dipped Tiber Creek, a Potomac River gay: Decled to have nu selfi Inx: 17Lyndon JohnsonGay: Referred to his penis as Jumbo, makg him Ameri's first size gay: Lady Bird was his wife, not his drag Inx: 21Andrew JohnsonGay: Sewed his own bpoke gay: Never asked anybody if he looked fat Inx: 28William McKleyGay: Wore a red rnatn boutonniere his lapel at all tim and kept a bouquet of rnatns on his gay: Inx: 35Ronald ReaganGay: Voted Most Nearly Perfect Male Figure by the Universy of California 1940 and posed nearly nu for a sculpture gay: Did actual work on his Inx: 42Gerald FordGay: Met his future wife while workg as a male mol (wowza, see image). Appeared on the ver of gay: Turned down the ver of Inx: 48Warren HardgGay: Threw parti for his Airedale terrier, Laddie Boy, who had a llar ma om Gold Rh gay: No actual teapots were volved Teapot Inx: 56Calv CoolidgeGay: Had pet nari named Snowflake, Nip and Tuck.

A GAY PRINT? THE MAJORY OF AMERINS BELIEVE THE UNTRY ISN’T READY

He said no to gay: He checked them out before turng them Inx: 70Abraham LlnGay: Shared a bed wh his iend Joshua Speed for three and a half years.

A PROCLAMATN ON LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENR, AND QUEER PRI MONTH, 2021

" Both men had their papers burned after gay: Oh, e on, he's Inx: 100Louis Bayard is the thor of the novel Courtg Mr. Today, Print Bin issued a proclamatn affirmg June 2021 as Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Pri Month, markg a time a time of hope, progrs, and promise for LGBTQ+ Amerins across the untry. Signg and Leadg Implementatn of a Printial Memorandum on Advancg the Human Rights of Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, Queer, and Intersex Persons Around the World.