2 gay presidents

Both men equally detested abolitionists.

Revealing queer influence in

By the time of his election to that office inBuchanan was a staunch conservative, committed to what he saw as upholding the Constitution and unwilling to quash southern secession during the winter of to He had become the consummate northern doughface.

King, for his part, was first elected to the U. House of Representatives in His commitment to the racial hierarchy of the slaveholding South was whole cloth. This understanding of male friendship pays close attention to the historical context of the time, an exercise that requires one to read the sources judiciously.

The other two openly LGBTQ heads of government identify as lesbian. And why do Americans seem fixated on making Buchanan our first gay president? Discover the hidden queer history of US Presidents and their companions. They came from different parts of the country: Buchanan was a lifelong Pennsylvanian, and King was a North Carolina transplant who helped found the city of Selma, Alabama.

Uncover the forgotten stories that shaped American history. Google James Buchanan and you inevitably discover the assertion that American history has declared him to be the first gay president. Buchanan started out as a pro-bank, pro-tariff, and anti-war Federalist, and held onto these views well after the party had run its course.

A generation of scholarship has uncovered numerous such intimate and mostly platonic friendships among men though some of these friendships certainly included an erotic element as well. Does the evidence presented here suggest the possibility of the existence of gay U.S.

presidents? Simply put, friendships provided the political glue that bound together a nation on the precipice of secession. They soon shared similar views on slavery, the most divisive issue of the day. George Washington () • Rumored to be gay (+2) • Put the importance of the Revolutionary struggle above the concerns of civilian life (+1) • Let same-sex couples in the Revolutionary army (+1) • Hired many LGBTQ people including Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben and Casimir Pulaski (+1) • Total Score: John Adams ( The premise raises many questions: What was the real nature of their relationship?

Let's find out if the rumors are true. My research led me to archives in 21 states, the District of Columbia, and gay the British Library in London. A recent spat in the Washington Daily Globe had stirred his political rivals into full froth—Aaron Venable Brown of Tennessee was especially enraged.

Simply put, the characterization underscores a powerful force at work in historical scholarship: the search for a usable queer past. In the rush to make new meaning of the past, I have come to understand why today it has become de rigeur to consider Buchanan our first gay president.

In the years before the Civil War, friendships among politicians provided an especially important way to bridge the chasm between the North and the South. While exploring a same-sex relationship that powerfully shaped national events in the antebellum era, Bosom Friends demonstrates that intimate male friendships among politicians were—and continue to be—an important part of success in American politics.

The Year History of Speculating About President James Buchanan’s Bachelorhood Was his close friendship with William Rufus King just that, or was it evidence that he was the nation’s president. They came by their politics differently.

Which US President was the Most LGBTQ Friendly?1. King was a Jeffersonian Democrat, or Democratic-Republican, who held a lifelong disdain for the national bank, was opposed to tariffs, and supported the War of By the s, both men had been pulled into the political orbit of Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party.

My findings suggest that theirs was an intimate male friendship of the kind common in 19th-century America. Other identities in the LGBTQ community, including bisexual, transgender, and intersex, have therefore not been openly represented in world heads of state and heads of government.