The long-awaited publication of the final work by the late
psychologist/Kinsey associate C.A. Tripp, claiming that Abe Lincoln
was gay (based on an analysis of circumstantial evidence), has,
expectedly, drawn some critical reaction. Richard Brookhiser, an
historian and senior editor at the conservative National Review,
but
writing in the New York Times, offers one of the more balanced
perspectives, finding:
Tripp can lay out a case, but his discussion of its implications is so erratic that the reader is often left on his own. One wonders: What does it mean to be homosexual?" ...
Tripp argues that a cultural innocence - the word "homosexual" had not yet been coined - allowed acts of physical closeness between men that had no deeper meaning, as well as acts that did but could escape scrutiny. We know more than our ancestors, and our reward is that, in some ways, we may do less. In any case, on the evidence before us, Lincoln loved men, at least some of whom loved him back. Their words tell us more than their sleeping arrangements.
On the other hand, disgruntled former Tripp associate Philip
Nobile,
writing in the conservative Weekly Standard, labels the work "a
hoax and a fraud: a historical hoax, because the inaccurate parts
are all shaded toward a predetermined conclusion, and a literary
fraud, because significant portions of the accurate parts are
plagiarized..." (from Nobile's own work, that is). And he adds a
tale of this encounter with gay firebrand Larry Kramer:
"If you don't stop making a stink about Tripp's book, I'm going to expose you as an enormous homophobe," Larry Kramer telephoned me to say last October. "For the sake of humanity, please, gays need a role model." I replied that the book was so bad, it would backfire on the homosexual movement when reviewers and readers caught on to the fabrications, contradictions, and general nuttiness of The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln.
Still, even Nobile admits:
The Gay Lincoln Theory, for all its jagged edges, may be a more satisfying explanation for the president's weird inner life than the Utterly Straight Lincoln Theory. "I have heard [Lincoln] say over and over again about sexual contact: 'It is a harp of a thousand strings,' Henry Whitney told William Herndon in 1865. Leaving aside Tripp's bad faith, it is not utterly beyond imagining that Lincoln may have played a few extra strings on that harp.
Yet perhaps more telling about the conservative response is
the Weekly Standard's cover, featuring a limp-wristed,
erring-wearing Lincoln and the text "The First Log Cabin
Republican?" That mocking response captures how most social
conservatives are going to react to the "gay Lincoln"
claims.
Updates: Andrew Sullivan argues it's Nobile who is guilty of fraud, not Tripp. And Tim Hulsey compares the Weekly Standard's Lincoln cover with another offensive Lincoln representation, this time over at liberal Salon.com. Writes Tim, "Judging from these two publications, it's disturbingly easy for heterosexual Americans - regardless of ideology - to make light of silly fairies, especially if we dare to claim Honest Abe as one of our own."
Rich Tafel explains why he's
not offended by the Weekly Standard cover.