christian grantham
Christian Grantham was a student activist in the late 90s and later was a consultant to domestic policy forums for the Clinton Administration as well as events for HRC and GLAAD.
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December 16, 2004

Joshua Speed, David Derickson, Billy Greene, Henry Whitney. Were these men gay lovers of our 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln? In "The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln," to be published next month, psychologist and author C.A. Tripp says yes.

Here are a few excerpts from a New York Times book review. The author, who died weeks after finishing the book last year, will certainly cause a lot of controversy with the new book.

BILLY GREENE and HENRY WHITNEY
Tripp charts Lincoln's relationships with other men, including Billy Greene, with whom Lincoln supposedly shared a bed in New Salem, Illinois. Herndon said Greene told him that Lincoln's thighs "were as perfect as a human being could be."

Lincoln's fellow lawyer Henry Whitney observed once that Lincoln "wooed me to close intimacy and familiarity."

DAVID DERICKSON
Donald also takes issue with the conclusion that Lincoln had a sexual relationship with Derickson, his bodyguard at his presidential retreat, the Soldiers' Home, outside Washington. Tripp writes that their closeness stirred comment in Washington, and cites a diary entry from Nov. 16, 1862, by Virginia Woodbury Fox, wife of Gustavus Fox, assistant secretary of the navy. She recounted a friend's report: "'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!" But Donald writes that "What stuff!" meant she was dismissing the rumor.

Tripp cites a second description of the relationship in an 1895 history of Derickson's regiment, the 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers, by Thomas Chamberlain, Derickson's commanding officer: "Captain Derickson, in particular, advanced so far in the president's confidence and esteem that, in Mrs. Lincoln's absence, he frequently spent the night at his cottage, sleeping in the same bed with him and - it is said - making use of his Excellency's night-shirts!"
[Seeking gay threads in Lincoln's legend - NYT via IHT - 12-17-04]

also read: Was Lincoln an Ass-Bandit??