Abraham Lincoln may have been the first American to write about a same-sex couple getting married. His 1829 poem recounting the marriage of Nate and Billy was "perhaps the most explicit literary reference to actual homosexual relations in 19th century America." Lincoln's most important early biographer, William Herndon, initially included the poem in his Life of Lincoln, but as so often with gay subjects, it was subsequently omitted and largely ignored by later scholars.
Recently there has been greater willingness to debate evidence that our greatest president may himself have had same-sex attraction and even acted on it, as the iconic Lincoln biographer, Carl Sandburg, intimated in 1924 when he wrote of Lincoln's "streaks of lavender." In 2005, C.A. Tripp's Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln marshaled accounts of Lincoln's relations with men such as Captain David Derickson, including a November 1862 diary entry by the wife of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy that reads, "There is a Bucktail soldier here, devoted to the President, drives with him, and when Mrs. L is not home, sleeps with him. What stuff!" Like other scholars, Tripp explored Lincoln's singularly intimate relationship with Joshua Speed, who told Herndon, "If I had not been married & happy -- far more happy than I ever expected to be -- [Lincoln] would not have married."
But it's not because of Lincoln's sexual orientation or other "stuff" that February 12, Lincoln's birthday, has for 12 years now been the centerpiece of National Freedom to Marry Week. Lincoln's strongest connection to the freedom to marry cause lies in the values he embodied in his life, and embodies in ours. He was committed to equality, freedom, and lifting people up. He called Americans to the "better angels of our nature," and he combined a deep moral integrity with a determined and strategic focus on achieving what is most important and right.
In the wake of last November's Proposition 8 temporarily halting marriages in California, and with marriage equality shimmering within reach in other states such as New York and New Jersey, gay and non-gay people and organizations across the country will spend Freedom to Marry Week asking our fellow citizens to, in Lincoln's words, "think anew" about how exclusion from marriage harms gay families while helping no one. Freedom to Marry Week in this Lincoln bicentennial year recalls his admonition, "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."
In Lincoln's Virtues, William Lee Miller described Lincoln's distinctly independent mind and great empathy (both as a child and adult). Young Lincoln rejected much of his world (hunting, fighting, chasing girls, slavery, churchgoing, cruelty to Indians, etc.) and yet remained engaged in the world, embracing and non-dismissive of others. Lincoln's ability and determination to put himself in the other's shoes -- to say of Southerners, as he did in numerous speeches as a candidate and as president, "they are just as we would be in their situation" -- while holding steadfastly to his lifelong belief that slavery is wrong, offers a lesson to those of us seeking to further move the public toward marriage equality.
Lincoln's combination of tactical maneuvering and incremental action with consistent articulation of a clear moral standard over time helped elevate public understanding and commitment to what is right. Even while biding his time or falling short of "purist" demands for immediate and extreme steps -- he was a politician, not philosopher -- Lincoln understood that "explicit public clarity...that slavery is a great moral evil was essential to the permanent solution to the problem of slavery."
Now slavery was an exceptional injustice, and I don't equate the wrong of marriage discrimination to it. Likewise, the challenges confronting President Obama and our country today are many and serious, though not of the existential scope as those confronting Lincoln. Still, Obama, like me a fervent admirer of Lincoln, would do well to ask himself what Lincoln would do faced with the question of whether to continue the denial of the freedom to marry to these committed couples.
As a candidate for the Illinois Senate in 1996, a body in which Lincoln also served, Obama in his own hand supported the Marriage Resolution now on Freedom to Marry's website. He said, "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages." I believe Lincoln, with today's understanding of who gay people are, would, too. And once Lincoln had taken such a step, he would have stuck with it, as when he courageously refused to retreat from the Emancipation Proclamation even when facing a difficult reelection battle in 1864. As Lincoln said, "The promise, being made, must be kept."
In recent years, Obama has wavered on marriage equality, while expressing commendable support for gay families and substitute legal status such as civil union -- getting the what (equality) right, but not the how (marriage). Lincoln, however, would not have abandoned a clear commitment to the right result even when, where necessary, moving by intermediate steps.
President Obama seems determined to embrace Lincoln's empathy model -- "there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America.... We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states." I hope he and other politicians also embrace Lincoln's courage and lessons on how to combine strategy with moral education, moral leadership, that prepares and moves Americans in fulfillment of our deepest values. After all, as a recent Freedom to Marry study reported, no legislators who voted for marriage equality or against anti-gay measures lost their seat in the last several election cycles.
As Lincoln's words and actions skillfully paved the way for America's "new birth of freedom," he returned again and again to the Declaration of Independence's promise that "all should have an equal chance." Lincoln didn't expect that promise to waft in by itself, or solely on the work of others. He led.
It seems that the people who truly do believe that what we do sexually does matter in many ways and on many levels and affects many more people than ourselves and our mate are the real minority these days and as such maybe we should demand protection from those who believe and act out the belief that what we do sexually does not matter . . .
That is merely your opinion.
This is fact, not opinion.
Now the argument here would be, 'oh but the men are only behaving that way because of our homophobic society, everything would be fine if not for the homophobia.' Right.
But what if this argument is a reversal of cause and effect ? From a female perspective, from those who are responsible for trying to raise healthy families while the men in their lives are living a lie which is fully supported and endorsed by the queer community, 'homophobia' is really the only rational response to such behavior.
(Note that phobia means fear, not hate as in the common use of this particular word.)
Also google MRSA USA300 for a new antibiotic resistant problem endemic in the queer community which is spread easily by casual (not intimate) contact. And realize this story was killed by none other than the CDC in response to protests by activist gay males.
What Obama and Biden are able to do sucessfully is state their Christian beliefs as personal, yet uphold Constitutional equality as a professional responsibility.
I know little of Lincoln, but I do know the passion of Paine, for equality and human rights. In matters of human freedom there is no difference.
My mother remarried after her uterus was ripped out, and my brother married a woman who was infertile and was happy with that.
Should they be able to marry?
Anyway, have you ever heard of artificial insemination?
You might just think that God made Gays in order to keep you guys from overpopulating the planet. With 6 billion people and this single "straight" mother popping out 8 at a time, you might hope that Gays are more than 10% of the population.
TiredOfLiars will not answer that question. Those who use procreation to argue against same-sex marriage never seem to be able to defend that position.
Marriage is a state granted license for ITS own reasons and benefits, NOT only for two peoples benefit. There is NO reason for the state to grant such a license. There has to be a perceived benefit for the state, and I can see none. It is up to the state legislature to grant such contracts. The justices who approved some gay marriages have it backwards, since they overlook that fact.
The states have the right to grant subsidies to businesses, and they do. Just because one business gets a state subsidy, does NOT mean that ALL other businesses are therefore entitled to them as well. It is NOT a denial of their rights to not grant them subsidies. The same is true with the gay marriage argument.
If you really have a gay friend and you don't believe they should be allowed to marry the one they love, than you are not their friend.
Gay marriage would bring an extreme amount of revenue to this state. Every Gay would love to come here and get married, we love celebrations, and we spend money; Remember we are usually DINKs, Double Income No Kids.
YOU WIN! IT'S YOUR COUNTRY NOW!
Just don't EXPECT any gay person to pay a dime to the I.R.S.
The issue of gay marriage can't be settled constitutionally by the President. Only the courts (usually the U.S. Supreme Court) can ultimately determine the constitutionality of laws. Of course, Obama may play a large role in term of his S.C. appointees -- depending on the timing of when the question finally gets to that highest level of our justice system.
Unadulterated BS!
They are very similar.
We were burned at the stake.
We were in concentration camps.
We are on the top of the Hate List for Conservatives.
We are still denied EQUAL CIVIL RIGHTS.
We are discriminated against.
We had laws up to a few years ago that would jail us for being who we are.
We are murdered, our funerals and parades are picketed, tear gassed and threatened.
We are imprisoned and murdered in other countries and our government won't work with the U.N. to stop this.
It is obnoxious to state that Lincoln position would have been the same as yours given NO evidence. He also did NOT consider blacks to be equal to whites at any time. So I seriously doubt he would share your views on gays.
Lincoln's accomplishments are no greater or less for me because of his sexual identity, BUT it is sad to think that, if believed and true, many in our country would look to his accomplishments and Lincoln in a less bright light.
It is sad that today there would be no way for a president, or anyone, to have an openly gay relationship without prejudice, harassment and discrimination.
The Gay marriage fight does equate to slavery in many ways. The Gay Rights Struggle equates as well to the African American struggle. Today the Gay Civil Rights Struggle is more difficult.
When looking at these issues we look to the past to learn and we look at the present to see what is happening and who is suffering, and then we look to the future and decide where we should be.
Slavery was a horrible part of our nation’s history. Much of our countries wealth and our nation building was done on the backs of a people subjugated, harassed, and manipulated. People were killed, tortured, imprisoned/confined for just who they were. Our use of slaves created a world market that caused wars and killing round the world, especially in African Nations where we paid men to kill and enslave people to export to the U.S. for our benefit. We supported killing, hate, and discrimination around the world for money.
Throughout history Gays have been arrested, subjugated, forced to hide, and killed and tortured for being who they are. We were burned (hence the word fa*ggot), we were in the concentration camps, only recently our love life was still illegal in some states (sodomy laws, which were only used against gays and not straight people who violated them), hate crimes against gays are on the rise and in some cases accepted by communities, we are on the top of the HATE LIST of the GOP, conservatives and religious organization, and U.S. policies are affecting and causing death in other countries, TODAY.
In our own country hate for Gays is the leading issue for most religious organizations and they have set out to take away and keep us from receiving EQUAL Protection, Equal Rights, and full equality as U.S. citizens. This crazed need to blame Gays for the declining straight society and the amount of failed “straight marriages” in our country is reminiscent of the Nazis blaming the Jews for all of their problems.