Lincoln and Ann Rutledge

[Mike B.]

(07-07-2014 03:35 AM)My Name Is Kate Wrote:  

(06-30-2014 01:44 AM)Lewis Gannett Wrote:  [quote='Gene C' pid='35010' dateline='1404128943']...you asked about the Chronicles of Reuben. It's about two young men who "marry," have sex, and are surprised that they can't have a baby. Like everything else it doesn't make a conclusive case by itself, but it does add to the overall picture. It gives a sense that Lincoln had sex on his mind. This is a man who ran away from girls as an adolescent (his step-mother noticed) and didn't marry until 33. Something does not add up.

I don't see anything that doesn't add up. Lincoln had an off-color sense of humor (who knows what caused that). And there could be any number of reasons for his running away from girls as an adolescent and not marrying until 33. Has anyone considered the possibility that his father, or maybe someone else abused him as a child, in ways that could have caused his shyness with girls? Why immediately jump to the conclusion, or speculate that it must be because he was gay? But I would be surprised if there weren't quite a few gay men back in those days (just as there are now), when women were for the most part uneducated and unemployed and weren't even considered citizens of the country they lived in. They must have seemed pretty boring compared to alot of the men.

Whether Lincoln was gay or not does matter though, because it suggests that he lived a double life and was not entirely honest about who he was. Was gayness so taboo in those days that it would be next to impossible to admit it to oneself, let alone to anyone else, including or especially to one's wife? If it was, then society has to share the blame for the lack of honesty.

As for Jesus being gay, or speculation that he was married to Mary Magdalene or that they were lovers, IMO there is no way he could be who he said he was if either were true. Does any Christian seriously think that someone who they believe was divinely conceived, would risk spreading his DNA around with ordinary humans? Or that he would go against nature (by which I mean that gayness serves no useful purpose in nature, that I know of) when he himself supposedly created nature? These are just two arguments against such speculations, that immediately come to mind.

Better have some pretty solid proof before going public with theories like that...

This is the matter of interpretation. I have always seen the "Chronicles" of Reuben" as a rude frontier joke, which we know Lincoln was certainly capable of telling. Zall's book of Lincoln's jokes has jokes about women in them. How does that fit with Tripp? As evidence the "Chronicles" seem wanting in providing evidence of anything, except Lincoln wanted to be particularily funny for those times. That is why a "systematic" rebuttal seems so hard.