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...
Contents:
- WHO WAS OUR FIRST GAY PRINT?
- OPN AMERI HAS ALREADY HAD A GAY PRINT
- AMERI'S ONLY BACHELOR PRINT MAY HAVE BEEN ITS ONLY GAY ONE
- NEWSWEEK VER: OBAMA ‘FIRST GAY PRINT’
- BARACK OBAMA: ‘THE FIRST GAY PRINT’?
- WAS JAM BUCHANAN AMERI’S FIRST GAY PRINT?
- PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS THERE HAVE PROBABLY BEEN GAY PRINTS. HERE'S WHY THAT THEORY IS COMPLITED
WHO WAS OUR FIRST GAY PRINT?
Was his close iendship wh William Ruf Kg jt that, or was evince that he was the natn's first gay chief executive? * first gay us president *
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.
Was each man “gay, ” or somethg else? And why do Amerins seem fixated on makg Buchanan our first gay print? 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.
OPN AMERI HAS ALREADY HAD A GAY PRINT
* first gay us president *
But by then, an unrstandg of homosexualy as a sexual inty and orientatn had begun to take hold among the general public. The media soon ught wd of the ia that we may have had a “gay print. ” 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.
This leav today wh the popular nceptn of Jam Buchanan as our first gay print. 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
Jam Buchanan was the only US print who never married. Here's why historians believe he was also our first, and so far only, gay print." emprop="scriptn * first gay us president *
More than anythg else, this impulse explas why Amerins have transformed Jam Buchanan to our first gay print. 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. (MORE: Gay Marriage the Swg Stat: Where Will Obama’s ‘Evolutn’ Matter?
NEWSWEEK VER: OBAMA ‘FIRST GAY PRINT’
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 acpanyg ver story was wrten by Andrew Sullivan, the popular--and openly gay--polil blogger. The magaze even giv the manr--chief a rabow halo. Obama, Sullivan wr, "had to disver his black [...] * first gay us president *
Loewen is one of several historians who believe that Jam Buchanan, who served om 1857 to 1861, was fact our first gay print. (MORE: In Gay Marriage Reversal, Print Obama Fac Risk on All Sis). 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.
BARACK OBAMA: ‘THE FIRST GAY PRINT’?
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.
WAS JAM BUCHANAN AMERI’S FIRST GAY PRINT?
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.
PETE BUTTIGIEG SAYS THERE HAVE PROBABLY BEEN GAY PRINTS. HERE'S WHY THAT THEORY IS COMPLITED
I thk we stand on firmer ground wh Kg, about whom the evince suggts that he was 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.