As
"conservatives" scream and yell about gays in the military, they might
remember that in all likelihood we have already had a gay
Commander-in-Chief.
His name was James Buchanan. He was the 15th President of the United States.
A Democrat from Pennsylvania, Buchanan is discreetly referred to in official texts as "our only bachelor president."
In
fact, many historians believe that he may well have been "married" to
William Rufus King, a pro-slavery Democrat from Alabama who was our only
bachelor Vice President.
The two men lived together for
years. Andrew Jackson, never one to shy from bullhorn bigotry, was
among those who variously referred to them as "Aunt Nancy" and "Mr.
Fancy." Other Washington wags called them "Mr. & Mrs. Buchanan," and
the like.
The nature of their relationship was never
officially confirmed or proclaimed in public. They were widely referred
to as "Siamese twins," slang at the time for a gay couple. But there
was no incriminating gap dress or heartfelt double-ring ceremony, civil
or otherwise. It was not uncommon at the time for men and women of the
same gender to live together and even share a bed while remaining
sexually uninvolved.
Buchanan was once engaged to marry a wealthy young woman named Ann Coleman.
But the complex affair ended with her mysterious, untimely death.
When King became ambassador to France in 1844, Buchanan complained that
"I have gone wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with
any of them."
With no Moral Majority or Bible thumping
fundamentalists to plague them, the King-Buchanan liaison was generally
embraced as a political and personal fact of life in a nation consumed
with real issues of life and death, freedom and slavery.
In
1852 King was elected as Franklin Pierce's Vice President. But on an
official mission, King contracted a fever and died, leaving Buchanan
alone and deeply distraught.
In 1856, Buchanan defeated John C.
Fremont, the first presidential candidate from the new Republican
Party. Buchanan did not run for re-election in 1860, when Abraham
Lincoln was the victor.
Buchanan's presidency was plagued by
economic and sectional disaster. He was a "doughface" northerner with
sympathies for southern slavery. Devoted to consensus and compromise,
he was swept away by the intense polarization that led to Civil War.
Through
his entire time in the White House, President Buchanan lived alone.
His niece served as "First Lady." He stayed unmarried, and had his
personal letters burned upon his death, further fueling speculation
about his sexual preferences.
Maybe it's time those legislators
so fiercely opposed to gays in the military face the high likelihood
that at least one Commander in Chief would probably be among them.
