COMMANDER IN CHIEF
Some homophobic people still refuse to acknowledge that America's had at least one gay president. Even though the man in question is routinely regarded as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history, they still don't want to elevate the standing of a "homosexual" to that prestigous job title--it's just not as easy to try and brand all gays with molesting and bestiality arguments when there was a Commander in Chief who had a long-term love affair with another man. And the president's likely lover? He once held the title of United States Vice President.
THEIR ARGUMENT As the 15th President of the United States (from 1857 to 1861) James Buchanan was as they say, a 'life-long bachelor' and the only U.S. president to have never married. But that doesn't mean he was gay, right? Sure, there's also the fact that for 15 long years (prior to his presidency), Buchanan lived with his dearest friend,
Alabama Senator William Rufus King. So what if King never married in his lifetime, either. But that doesn't make them gay. Lots of men lived together back then, but they usually did so because of money--these were two wealthy gentleman. And so what if they wrote many intimate letters to one another, personal enough in content that the president's nieces destroyed most of them upon the president's death? All of that doesn't prove anything they argue--there is nothing in that record to confirm without a doubt his sexual preference. And this is true.
CONNECTING THE DOTS Yet it's more than just these facts that's lead respected historians to believe he was gay. It's looking at not just selected parts of his life, but putting everything together that forms a conclusion. The argument made, that it's totally inappropriate to apply today's values and living standards to other eras, is absolutely correct--however even for the time peiord in which Mr. Buchanan lived, rumors were circulating about his sexuality. In Professor Loewen's book,
"Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong," the scholar asserts that Buchanan's long-time living companion, King, was referred to as "
Aunt Fancy" by the era's Beltway crowd. Who were these beltway gossips and why would anyone believe them? Oh, people like
Andrew Jackson, who liked to refer to King as
"Miss Nancy." There's also
Aaron V. Brown ( Governor of Tennessee and Postmaster General in the Buchanan administration) who spoke of the two as
"Buchanan and his wife." The point is, Buchanan's sexual orientation was widely rumored
while he was still living, to the point that when people talked about
"Mrs. Buchanan" they typically knew it meant Mr. King.
Yet despite this bitchy name calling, there were no Moral Majority or Bible thumping fundamentalists in politics strong enough to plague them or ruin their lives. The King-Buchanan liaison was generally accepted (and snickered at) as a political and personal fact of life. Rightfully so, the nation was consumed with real issues like freedom and slavery.
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