Gay Rights - Movement, Marriage & Flag | HISTORY

Contents:

• OPN AMERI HAS ALREADY HAD A GAY PRINT
• PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS THERE HAVE PROBABLY BEEN GAY PRINTS. HERE'S WHY THAT THEORY IS COMPLITED
• AMERI'S ONLY BACHELOR PRINT MAY HAVE BEEN ITS ONLY GAY ONE
• WHO WAS OUR FIRST GAY PRINT?
• WAS ABRAHAM LLN OUR FIRST GAY PRINT?
• WOULD BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? MAYBE NOT.
• GAY RIGHTS
• A GAY PRINT? THE MAJORY OF AMERINS BELIEVE THE UNTRY ISN’T READY
• TMP PRI: GAY REPUBLINS ON WHY THEY'RE BACKG THE PRINT

OPN AMERI HAS ALREADY HAD A 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. “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.

“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. “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.

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

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. 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).

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

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. 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. 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.

WHO WAS OUR FIRST GAY PRINT?

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. 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.

"Hoover thought many left-leang Amerins posed a threat to the natn, and he thought the same of gay people -- even though there's reason to believe Hoover was gay himself and a long-term relatnship wh ai Cly Tolson. "Many loyal Amerins, by reason of stabily, alholism, homosexualy, or prev tennci to associate wh Communist-ont groups, are untentnally secury risks, " Ike himself wrote, although he also admted feelg guilty over his treatment of Vannberg. Civil Service Commissn lifted the orr 1975, and the Department of Defense, which had ed to ny secury clearanc to gays and lbians, gradually ceased s "tensive qutng of gays...

WAS ABRAHAM LLN OUR FIRST GAY PRINT?

JohnsonKennedy and Johnson may have never thought their civil rights law would be terpreted as protectg LGBT people, but Kennedy, at least, would probably approve -- his bt iend was a gay man, Lem Billgs.

WOULD BUTTIGIEG BE THE FIRST GAY PRINT? MAYBE NOT.

" Its Office of Civil Rights will therefore vtigate such claims, offerg a means of relief for transgenr and, to some extent, lbian, gay, and bisexual CarterCarter, who intifi as a "born-aga" Christian, is proof that ep relig fah need not go hand hand wh homophobia. In 1976, as a ndidate, he had ma clear he would sign a gay rights bill, and 1977, durg his princy, the first-ever gay and lbian legatn vised the Whe Hoe to discs policy issu wh admistratn officials. He has famoly said, "I never knew of any word or actn of J Christ that discrimated agast anyone, " and has endorsed marriage ReaganReagan's greatt effect on the gay populatn was undoubtedly his rponse, or lack thereof, to a disease that took the liv of many gay men.

GAY RIGHTS

Although the former actor was apparently personally fortable wh gay people, he drew much of his support om the antigay relig right, such as Jerry Falwell and his so-lled Moral Majory, and officials his admistratn clud such notor homophob as Gary Ber and Pat Buchanan. 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? 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. 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. 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.

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.

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

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.

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. ”“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. “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.

TMP PRI: GAY REPUBLINS ON WHY THEY'RE BACKG THE PRINT

“Pri is a time to rell the trials the Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, and Queer muny has endured and to rejoice the triumphs of trailblazg dividuals who have bravely fought – and ntue to fight – for full equaly, ” Mr Bin said a statement on Tuday. Thirty years ago this month, at the Stonewall Inn New York Cy, a urageo group of cizens risted harassment and mistreatment, settg motn a cha of events that would bee known as the Stonewall Uprisg and the birth of the morn gay and lbian civil rights movement. Gays and lbians, their fai and iends, celebrate the anniversary of Stonewall every June Ameri as Gay and Lbian Pri Month; and, earlier this month, the Natnal Park Service add the Stonewall Inn, as well as the nearby park and neighborhood streets surroundg , to the Natnal Register of Historic Plac.

I enurage all Amerins to observe this month wh appropriate programs, ceremoni, and activi that celebrate our diversy, and to remember throughout the year the gay and lbian Amerins whose many and varied ntributns have enriched our natnal life. Army service World War I, Gerber was spired to create his anizatn by the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee, a “homosexual emancipatn” group ’s small group published a few issu of s newsletter “Friendship and Freedom, ” the untry’s first gay-tert newsletter.

Ernment signated Gerber’s Chigo hoe a Natnal Historic Pk TriangleCorbis/Getty ImagHomosexual prisoners at the ncentratn mp at Sachsenhsen, Germany, wearg pk triangl on their uniforms on December 19, gay rights movement stagnated for the next few s, though LGBT dividuals around the world did e to the spotlight a few example, English poet and thor Radclyffe Hall stirred up ntroversy 1928 when she published her lbian-themed novel, The Well of Lonels. Addnally, 1948, his book Sexual Behavr the Human Male, Aled Ksey proposed that male sexual orientatn li on a ntuum between exclively homosexual to exclively Homophile Years In 1950, Harry Hay found the Mattache Foundatn, one of the natn’s first gay rights group.