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The sexuality of Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th President of the United States, has been a topic of fringe historical debate and scholarship, particularly since the late twentieth century.〔Cathy Young, "Co-opting Lincoln's sexuality," ''Boston Globe'' 31 January 2005〕 Lincoln was married to Mary Todd from November 4, 1842, until his death on April 15, 1865, and fathered four children with her. According to several historians, there was no indication during Lincoln's lifetime that anyone suspected him of homosexuality and few researchers have argued to the contrary. In a 2005 book, psychologist C. A. Tripp described Lincoln as having a problematic and distant relationship with women, in contrast to his warmer relations with a number of men in his life; Tripp writes that two of those relationships had possible homoerotic overtones.〔Richard Brookhiser (Was Lincoln Gay? ) New York Times Jan 9, 2005〕 Tripp's view has been particularly criticized for flawed historical methodology.〔Schroeder-Lein, p. 50〕 Some Lincoln biographers, including David Herbert Donald, have strongly contested claims that Lincoln was homosexual or bisexual.〔D. H. Donald, ''We are Lincoln Men,'' pp. 141-143 Simon & Schuster, 2003, ISBN 0-7432-5468-6〕 In opposing such claims, Donald cites Lincoln's letters for context, in which he frequently referred to acquaintances, even political enemies, as "my personal friend".〔(15 December 2003). (Gregory M. Lamb, Review: ''We Are Lincoln Men: Abraham Lincoln and His Friends,'' by D. H. Donald )〕 ==Historical scholarship and debate== Commentary on President Abraham Lincoln's sexuality has existed since the early 20th century. Attention to the sexuality of public figures has been heightened since the gay rights movement of the later 20th century. Lincoln's case re-entered the public light in 2005 with the posthumous publication of psychologist C. A. Tripp's book, ''The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln.'' In his 1926 biography of Lincoln, Carl Sandburg alluded to the early relationship of Lincoln and his friend Joshua Fry Speed as having "a streak of lavender, and spots soft as May violets". "Streak of lavender" was slang in the period for an effeminate man, and later connoted homosexuality.〔A. J. Pollock, "Underworld Speaks" (1935) p 115/2, cited in ''Oxford English Dictionary.''〕 Sandburg did not elaborate on this comment.〔Philip Nobile "(Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Publish: Homophobia in Lincoln Studies?" ), ''GMU History News Network'', June 2001〕 Lincoln wrote a poem that described a marriage-like relation between two men, which included the lines: This poem was included in the first edition of the 1889 biography of Lincoln by his friend and colleague William Herndon.〔Herndon, W. H., ''Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life.'' Scituate, MA: Digital Scanning, 2000.〕 It was expurgated from subsequent editions until 1942, when the editor Paul Angle restored it. This is an example of what Mark Blechner calls "the closeting of history,"〔Blechner, M. J. (2009) ''Sex Changes: Transformations in Society and Psychoanalysis.'' New York and London: Taylor & Francis.〕 in which evidence that suggests a degree of homosexuality or bisexuality in a major historical figure is suppressed or hidden. C. A. Tripp, who was gay and died in 2003, was a sex researcher and protégé of Alfred Kinsey. He began writing ''The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln'' with Philip Nobile, but they had a falling out. The ''New York Times'' quoted Nobile saying, "Tripp's book is a fraud", noting that Nobile "declined to say what was fraudulent, however, because he said he was writing his own article about it".〔Smith, Dinitia (''Finding Homosexual Threads in Lincoln's Legend'' ), December 16, 2004, New York Times〕 Nobile wrote a critical review of Tripp's book, published by the ''Weekly Standard'', in which he accused Tripp of distortion, plagiarizing his own work, and relying heavily on the work of Charles Shiveley without proper attribution.〔Nobile, Philip ("Honest, Abe?" ), ''Weekly Standard,'' Vol 10, Issue 17, 17 January 2005〕 Nobile has never published a book on Lincoln. In 2007 he encountered controversy of his own, related to his allegedly wrongfully accusing his superiors of involvement in a cheating scheme at his school.〔("New Report Clears School of Cheating" ), ''New York Times'', 27 June 2007〕 Tripp's book includes an afterword by historian and Lincoln biographer Michael Burlingame titled "A Respectful Dissent", in which he states: In a second afterword to the book titled "An Enthusiastic Endorsement", historian Michael B. Chesson makes the argument for the historical significance of the work: ''Time'' magazine addressed the book as part of a cover article by Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of ''Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness.'' Shenk dismissed Tripp's conclusions, stating that arguments for Lincoln's homosexuality were "based on a tortured misreading of conventional 19th century sleeping arrangements". Charles Morris in 2009 has critically analyzed the academic and popular responses to Tripp's book, arguing that much of the negative response by the Lincoln Establishment reveals as much rhetorical and political partisanship as that of Tripp's defenders.〔Charles E. Morris III, "Hard Evidence: The Vexations of Lincoln's Queer Corpus", in ''Rhetoric, Materiality, Politics,'' ed. Barbara Biesecker and John Louis Lucaites (New York: Peter Lang, 2009): 185-213〕 In an earlier 2007 essay, Morris argues that in the wake of playwright Larry Kramer's "outing" of Lincoln, the Lincoln Establishment engaged in "mnemonicide", or the assassination of a threatening counter-memory. He put in this category what he called the methodologically flawed but widely appropriated case against the "gay Lincoln thesis" by David Herbert Donald in his book, ''We Are Lincoln Men''.〔"My Old Kentucky Homo: Abraham Lincoln, Larry Kramer, and the Politics of Queer Memory", ''Queering Public Address: Sexualities and American Historical Discourse,'' ed. Charles E. Morris III (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2007): 93-120〕 In 1999, Larry Kramer claimed that he had uncovered previously unknown documents while performing research for his work-in-progress, ''The American People: A History'',〔Kramer, Larry. ("Nuremberg Trials for AIDS" ), ''The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide''. September–October 2006.〕 including some allegedly found hidden in the floorboards of the old store once shared by Lincoln and Joshua Speed. The documents reportedly provide explicit details of a relationship between Lincoln and Speed, and currently reside in a private collection in Davenport, Iowa.〔Carol Lloyd ("Was Lincoln Gay?" ), ''Salon'' Ivory Tower May 3, 1999〕 Their authenticity, however, has been called into question by historians such as Gabor Boritt, who wrote, "Almost certainly this is a hoax."〔Gabor Boritt, ''The Lincoln Enigma: The Changing Faces of an American Icon'', Oxford University Press, 2001, p.xiv.〕 C. A. Tripp also expressed his skepticism over Kramer's discovery, writing, "Seeing is believing, should that diary ever show up; the passages claimed for it have not the slightest Lincolnian ring."〔C.A. Tripp, ''The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln'', pg xxx, Free Press, 2005 ISBN 0-7432-6639-0〕 Critics of the hypothesis that Lincoln was homosexually inclined note that Lincoln married and had four children. Scholar Douglas Wilson claims that Lincoln as a young man displayed heterosexual behavior, including telling stories to his friends of his interactions with women.〔Douglas Wilson ''Honor's Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln,'' Vintage Publishing, 1999, ISBN 0-375-70396-9〕 Tripp notes that Lincoln's awareness of homosexuality and openness in penning this "bawdy poem" "was unique for the time period."〔C.A. Tripp, ''The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln'' pg 40-41 Free Press 2005 ISBN 0-7432-6639-0〕 Donald, however, notes that Lincoln would have needed to look no further than the Bible to realize "that men did sometimes have sex with each other",〔D. H. Donald, ''We are Lincoln Men,'' pg 36〕 and historian William Lee Miller, among others, has acknowledged that Lincoln was reading the Bible well before his twentieth birthday.〔William Lee Miller, ''Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography''(2002), ISBN 0-375-70173-7, pg 49. Miller states of the young Lincoln, "...there cannot be much doubt that he read and reread and came to know a good deal of the Bible."〕 Lincoln's stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, commented that he "never took much interest in the girls". However some accounts of Lincoln's contemporaries suggest a strong but controlled passion for women.〔Jonathan Ned Katz, ''Love Stories: Sex Between Men Before Homosexuality'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. On Lincoln and Speed, see chapter 1, "No Two Men Were Ever More Intimate", pp. 3-25. For more on Lincoln and sexuality see the notes to this chapter.〕 Lincoln was devastated over the 1835 death of Ann Rutledge. While some historians have questioned whether he had a romantic relationship with her, historian John Y. Simon reviewed the historiography of the subject and concluded that "Available evidence overwhelmingly indicates that Lincoln so loved Ann that her death plunged him into severe depression. More than a century and a half after her death, when significant new evidence cannot be expected, she should take her proper place in Lincoln biography."〔(''Abraham Lincoln and Ann Rutledge'' ), John Y. Simon〕 Herndon, Lincoln's law partner, in his biography of Lincoln, attests to the depth of Lincoln's love for Ann Rutledge. An anonymous poem about suicide published locally exactly three years after her death is widely attributed to Lincoln.〔(''The New Yorker'', Eureka Dept., "The Suicide Poem" ), Jun 14, 2004〕〔(Library of Congress: Collection Guides (online), ''Lincoln as Poet'' )〕 In contrast, his courting of Mary Owens was diffident. In 1837, he wrote to her from Springfield to give her an opportunity to break off their relationship. Lincoln wrote to a friend in 1838: "I knew she was oversize, but now she appeared a fair match for Falstaff".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Letter, Abraham Lincoln to Mary S. Owens reflecting the frustration of courtship, 16 August 1837 ) (Abraham Lincoln Papers)〕 In 2012, Sylvia Rhue, a filmmaker and activist, interviewed Reverend Cindi Love about her family history and research. Love, a descendant of William Herndon, noted that family tradition held that Herndon was gay and the lover of Lincoln. In her book ''Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln'', historian Doris Kearns Goodwin argues: Goodwin also states, echoing Donald Yacovone, that "the preoccupation with elemental sex" reveals more about the later centuries "than about the nineteenth" (58). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sexuality of Abraham Lincoln」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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