Was Abraham Lincoln Gay? The Debate Over America’s 16th President Is Back in the Spotlight

The question sounds modern, almost tabloid-ready: Was Abraham Lincoln secretly gay? But behind the viral headline is a much deeper historical argument about evidence, intimacy, language, and the way LGBTQ lives are often erased or flattened by later generations. A new wave of public interest — fueled by the documentary Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln, recent Pride-season coverage, and ongoing conversations at President Lincoln’s Cottage — has pushed the subject back into the mainstream.

The honest answer is not simple. There is no surviving diary entry in which Lincoln labels himself gay, bisexual, queer, or anything close to those modern identity terms. Those words did not function in his world the way they do in ours. But there is also a substantial historical record showing that Lincoln formed unusually intense bonds with men, most famously Joshua Speed, with whom he lived and shared a bed for years in Springfield, Illinois. Some historians see those relationships as evidence of romantic or sexual intimacy. Others argue they reflect 19th-century customs of male friendship, shared lodging, and emotional expression.

For LGBTQ readers, the debate matters less because it offers a neat label for Lincoln and more because it asks a larger question: Who gets included in American history, and what kinds of love are historians willing to recognize?

What Happened

People recently revisited the long-running debate over Lincoln’s sexuality after NBC4 Washington’s Pride coverage explored LGBTQ people in America’s story, including a visit to President Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington, D.C. The Cottage, also known as the Soldiers’ Home, was one of Lincoln’s most important retreats during the Civil War and is closely associated with his development of the Emancipation Proclamation.

In that NBC4 segment, Lincoln Cottage scholars discussed how often visitors ask about Lincoln’s sexuality. The clearest documented relationship at the center of the conversation is Lincoln’s bond with Joshua Speed, a Springfield store owner who became one of Lincoln’s closest friends. Joan Cummins of President Lincoln’s Cottage said Lincoln and Speed had “a really profound connection” and noted that Speed was there for Lincoln during one of his deepest depressive episodes.

“We know for a fact they were sharing a bed,” Cummins said in the NBC4 report.

That detail alone does not prove a sexual relationship. In the 1800s, men often shared beds while traveling, boarding, or living in crowded conditions. But Lincoln and Speed’s arrangement lasted far longer than a quick overnight necessity, and their emotional correspondence has long fascinated scholars of sexuality and American history.

The Joshua Speed Relationship

Lincoln met Joshua Fry Speed after arriving in Springfield in 1837. According to the history most often cited by scholars, Lincoln needed bedding and furniture but had little money. Speed offered him a place above his store, and the two men became roommates. Their friendship continued after Speed returned to Kentucky, and the surviving letters between them are among the most emotionally revealing documents Lincoln left behind.

The Papers of Abraham Lincoln notes that from January 1842 until Lincoln’s own marriage in November of that year, Lincoln and Speed exchanged letters “mutually consoling and reassuring each other” about romance and marriage. Speed had married Fanny Henning in February 1842. Lincoln, who had broken off and then renewed his relationship with Mary Todd, was working through his own anxieties about love, commitment, and loneliness.

One reason the letters still draw attention is their intimacy. In a February 1842 letter highlighted by the Lover of Men project, Lincoln told Speed he expected to be “very lonesome” without him and signed off with a form of devotion that has become central to the debate: “Yours Forever.” The documentary’s supporters argue that this language should not be dismissed as merely conventional. Skeptics counter that 19th-century male friendship could be far more emotionally expressive than many modern readers expect.

The relationship was not limited to private feeling. Lincoln and Speed remained close enough that, years later, Lincoln trusted Speed with frank political thoughts. In an 1855 letter preserved by the Massachusetts Historical Society, Lincoln wrote to Speed about slavery, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the moral crisis facing the country. He closed that letter, “Your friend forever A. Lincoln.” That letter is important not because it proves sexuality, but because it shows the durability of the bond. Speed was someone Lincoln trusted with private convictions on one of the most explosive issues in American life.

The Documentary That Reopened the Conversation

The 2024 documentary Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln pushed the debate into a much wider public arena. The film’s official synopsis says it examines Lincoln’s intimate life through scholars, historical recreations, photographs, and letters, arguing that Lincoln had romantic relationships with men. It also frames the story as a broader examination of gender roles, sexual identity, and American intolerance.

The documentary focuses not only on Joshua Speed, but also on several other men in Lincoln’s life, including Billy Greene, Elmer Ellsworth, and Captain David Derickson. AP summarized the film as spotlighting Lincoln’s sexuality, with historians in the film arguing that the 16th president was what many people today would call queer.

For readers who want to see the argument in the filmmakers’ own words, the official trailer is below.

YouTube embed

External media is paused until you choose to load it.

Open original

The David Derickson Question

The most discussed evidence from Lincoln’s presidency involves Captain David Derickson, a member of the Pennsylvania Bucktail regiment assigned to protect Lincoln. Some accounts suggest that Derickson spent nights at Lincoln’s cottage when Mary Todd Lincoln was away.

A Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association article by Martin P. Johnson examined the evidence closely. One source was Thomas Chamberlin, an officer in Derickson’s regiment, who wrote decades later that Derickson had advanced far in Lincoln’s confidence and, when Mrs. Lincoln was absent, sometimes slept in the same bed with him. Another source was a diary account from Elizabeth Woodbury Fox, wife of Lincoln’s naval aide, who recorded gossip about a Bucktail soldier devoted to the president.

Supporters of the queer Lincoln interpretation see the Derickson material as a sign that Lincoln’s intimate relationships with men did not end with youth or frontier boarding-house customs. Skeptics note that the evidence is indirect, partly hearsay, and difficult to interpret. Johnson’s review concluded that the two Derickson accounts may not be as independent as they first appear, which weakens the case for treating them as separate corroboration.

That is the pattern throughout this debate: the evidence is suggestive, but not conclusive. It is too substantial to ignore and too ambiguous to settle the question cleanly.

What Skeptical Historians Say

Not all Lincoln scholars accept the argument that Lincoln had sexual relationships with men. Charles B. Strozier, a historian and psychoanalyst who has written extensively about Lincoln and Speed, has argued that their friendship was emotionally profound but not sexual. In a Columbia University Press interview, Strozier said the 19th century allowed for deep, loving male friendship, but that homosexuality itself was severely taboo and legally dangerous.

“It kept him alive,” Strozier said of Speed’s friendship with Lincoln.

That line is powerful even if one rejects the sexual interpretation. It recognizes that Speed was not a casual friend. He was part of Lincoln’s emotional survival. For LGBTQ historians, that raises an important point: even when sex cannot be proven, intense same-sex love is still historically meaningful.

Other skeptics point to Lincoln’s marriage to Mary Todd Lincoln and their four sons: Robert, Edward, Willie, and Tad. The White House Historical Association records that Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd married on November 4, 1842, and raised a family together. The National Park Service also emphasizes Lincoln’s family life at the Springfield home, where he lived with Mary and their sons.

But marriage and children do not automatically rule out bisexuality, same-sex desire, or emotionally complex private lives. They do, however, remind us not to simplify Lincoln into a modern identity category without acknowledging the world he lived in.

Why It Matters To LGBTQ Readers

The Lincoln debate can become silly when it is reduced to a yes-or-no culture-war fight. The better question is not simply “Was Lincoln gay?” It is: What evidence have historians ignored because they assumed heterosexuality by default?

For much of American history, queer lives were hidden, criminalized, medicalized, or explained away. In the 19th century, men could express affection in letters, share beds, and form intense emotional bonds without using identity labels familiar to us now. Some of those bonds may have been nonsexual. Some may have been romantic. Some may have been erotic. The problem is that later generations often treated heterosexual explanations as neutral and queer explanations as political or scandalous.

President Lincoln’s Cottage handled the question with the right balance in its own Q&Abe episode, asking listeners to think about where they see themselves in history and how they can remain open to “queer possibility.” That phrase is useful. It does not force Lincoln into a box. It asks us not to lock him out of one either.

A Brief Timeline

  • 1837: Lincoln arrives in Springfield, Illinois, and begins his close friendship and living arrangement with Joshua Speed.
  • 1841: Speed leaves Springfield for Kentucky. Lincoln enters one of the darkest emotional periods of his life, often linked by historians to multiple personal and political crises.
  • 1842: Speed marries Fanny Henning. Lincoln and Speed exchange deeply personal letters. Lincoln marries Mary Todd later that year.
  • 1855: Lincoln writes Speed a major private letter about slavery and politics, showing that their friendship remained important years after they stopped living together.
  • 1862-1863: Lincoln spends significant time at the Soldiers’ Home. Accounts later connect him to Captain David Derickson, his bodyguard.
  • 2001-2005: Jonathan Ned Katz’s Love Stories and C.A. Tripp’s The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln bring renewed scholarly and public attention to Lincoln’s relationships with men.
  • 2024: Lover of Men premieres, bringing the queer Lincoln argument into mainstream documentary conversation.
  • 2026: NBC4 Washington and People revisit the subject as part of a broader Pride-season conversation about LGBTQ people in American history.

So, Was Abraham Lincoln Gay?

The most accurate answer is that we do not know in the modern sense. Lincoln did not leave behind a clear self-description of his sexuality. The categories “gay,” “straight,” and “bisexual” do not map neatly onto the 19th century. Any article that claims absolute certainty is going further than the evidence allows.

But it is equally misleading to pretend there is nothing to discuss. Lincoln shared a bed with Joshua Speed for years. He wrote emotionally intense letters to him. Their separation coincided with a devastating period in Lincoln’s life. Later accounts suggest unusual closeness between Lincoln and Derickson during the presidency. Scholars continue to debate whether those facts point to sexual relationships, romantic friendship, or something that does not fit comfortably into present-day categories.

What can be said with confidence is this: Abraham Lincoln’s emotional life was more complex than the marble monument version of him suggests. The men he loved, trusted, slept beside, wrote to, and grieved over were part of the human being behind the national icon.

What Happens Next

The debate is not over. Lover of Men has given the queer Lincoln argument a larger audience, while skeptical scholars continue to challenge the interpretation. That tension is healthy when it stays grounded in evidence rather than panic. The next stage will likely involve more public history institutions, classrooms, and LGBTQ historians asking how to teach Lincoln without either sensationalizing or sanitizing him.

For gay.us readers, the takeaway is not that Lincoln must be claimed as a modern gay icon. It is that queer possibility has always existed inside American history, even when later generations tried to make it disappear. Lincoln’s story reminds us that the past was not less complicated than the present. It was just recorded by people with their own limits, biases, fears, and silences.

Sources / Further Reading