American FilthA little spicy rerun!
School of Humans. Hello, beautiful filth heads, literally the most attractive people who have ever existed. So we're doing a repeat episode today, doing her little rerun because I was writing the episode for this week and then I went back and did some fact checking and.
Found that there were several errors that then I didn't have the time to completely fix. Whoopsies.
But look at that me being a fact checking I'm a journalist, a history journalist indeed.
But this episode is one of my favorites.
And I also, as you guys all know since you know everything about me, is I also do stand up and so I've actually been doing a bit about this episode because this is the one about Abraham Lincoln maybe being gay. Gabraham Lincoln, Everyone's favorite subject. And this was part of a series that I did called Bedfellows Headfellows, and where I was like, look at all these various people who might have been gay in the past, isn't that exciting, And then just really got into outing historical figures for a while. But I have been doing the stand up bit about this and the joke. You might have already heard it on Instagram, which, of course you can follow the pod at American Filth pod. But the dirty joke I've been doing about Abraham Lincoln being gay is, do you guys think when Abraham Lincoln was banging dudes, he was wearing his top hat and the guys he was banging were wearing bottom hats. So I just wanted to share it that with you to have a special little treat. But I hope you guys enjoyed the episode. We'll be back next week with original content, brand spanking news stuff about history. In the meantime, enjoy Abraham Lincoln getting down and dirty with some dudes. Cue the theme song, wamp wam blamp, wham blamp, blam blamp wam blam. This is American philth that. I'm Gabby Watts. Every week I tell you a filed the story from American history, and this week we got Bedfellows Headfellows, Part two.
They were just roommates.
Do do do Do Do Do Do do do do? Okay, Okay. I can hear some of you from across the pod. I can see I hear what you're saying. Some of you are shouting. There's literally no evidence that Abraham Lincoln did homosexual heavy petting.
I get it.
I will acknowledge that many historians have said there is absolutely no way that that happened. The sort of Lincoln historical establishment is like, no, that's just wild, wild conjecture and just you making assumptions about people you don't.
Know what's up.
For example, the one historian was like, some irresponsible authors have suggested that Abraham Lincoln was a homosexual. There is no evidence for this claim. But the irresponsible author that that historian was referring to is probably this guy named c. A.
Trip.
He was a writer and a psychologist who studied under Alfred Kinsey, you know, the sex psychologist, the Kinsey Scale, etc. And Trip worked under him, and he spent most of the nineteen seventies being like, hey, I don't think being gay is a personality disorder. Trip himself was a gay man. He's like, I'm fine, there's nothing wrong with me. But he wrote a book that came out in two thousand and five called The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln. And that's where he summarized his years of research on proving that yes, in fact, our log cabin depressed six or for President was in fact a little bit gay.
Yeah.
Basically, what he's saying Is that the night John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln in the head. That wasn't the first time Lincoln had his brains blown out. Yeah, that's a terrible oral sex joke. I'm sorry. Am I canceled now?
I hope? So I'm tired.
I want to go live with my mom.
Hi, Hi, Mom? How are you? I'm good. It sounds like your weekend was fun. Oh yeah, it was a good time. Uh.
So, I just made a really horrendous joke on my podcast, Mom, and I was just wondering if I get canceled, Is it okay if I come and.
Live with you? Well, as long as you don't tell anybody that I live with you?
Yes?
What is I embarrassing for you or embarrassing for me? No, it's I was being funny. I thought you were recording me. I am recording you.
Mom. Okay, we're just gonna see what works for the podcast.
Oh well, what would work for the podcast? I would say, But of course, honey.
Well you can say that, or you could also say, no, don't get canceled.
Gabby, don't get canceled. Yeah, that felt really authentic. Okay, but if you do, of course you can come live with me. Okay, thanks, Mom, you can pick any of those. Okay.
So the bit didn't really work. So I need to get an actor to be my mom. But that might be in the next episode. But anyway, back to the subject matter at hand.
Job. So, before C. A.
Trip had published that book about Lincoln sexuality in two thousand and five, he had actually already written a bunch of stuff about Lincoln maybe being gay, which really riled the feathers of the Lincoln historical establishment, who were like, this is poppy cock. Lincoln's cock never popped for the boys. But once this argument was brought to the greater public, unfortunately Tripp was not there to argue it because he died two weeks after finishing this book. Now, what evidence do we have that would say that would point to that might suggest that Abraham Lincoln was a homosexual. Let's take a look at some hot takes in the Gabraham Lincoln conspiracy. This first one is just something I thought about as a member of the LGBTQ community myself. Let me tell you, gay people love to rhyme and then think about it. What did Abraham Lincoln do the Emancipation Proclamation?
Gay also great, but gay. But here's to Trip's.
More rigorous evidence. And by more rigorous, I mean kind of. I think if you read his book, you'll see that he's applying a lot of psychological ideas to the past. And it's like, yeah, I don't know if it works like that. I think you're just making some assumptions. But let me tell you the speculation, the conjecture. It is so much more exciting to think about than what most people say about Abraham Lincoln based on facts and letters and blah blah blah.
Who cares.
Let's look at human behavior and analyze it in the past. This is actually one of my favorite types of history because it really is a big part of history is that people will go back in time and.
Be like, who's gay, Let's figure out it out.
It's this type of history I like to call gay or nay. So one thing that Trip points to is that when Abraham Lincoln was a much younger man, he had written some satirical poetry in a manuscript he called the Chronicles of Ruben. That's right, again, he's doing poetry, and again that's rhyming, and that's usually gay. But within the Chronicles of Ruben, Lincoln actually refers to homosexuality.
He wrote, for Ruben.
And Charles have married two girls, but Billy has married a boy. The girls he had tried on every side, but none he could get to agree.
All was in vain.
He went home again, and since that he's married to Natty, look at that Billy and Natty. I send them my best nuptial regards. And the reason Trip included this in his book was that he was like, hey, this proves that even when Lincoln was younger, he had an awareness that homosexual people existed. But also trips like how did he know that they existed? Like why would that occur to him? Maybe it's because he himself was having some gay thoughts and he liked the idea of two men getting married. Also, Trip points to this quote from Lincoln's stepmom, who said at some point that when he was younger, Lincoln was not very fond of girls, and then when he got older, Lincoln had a pretty hard time talking to women.
He wasn't a good flirt.
So, I mean, we could also just read the poem as he just really loves hanging out with the boys because he doesn't know what to do with the goals but Trip's like, no, he's gay. Some other historians have also kind of echoed this idea, where they've said things like, oh, Lincoln in general seemed pretty ambivalent about marrying Mary Todd, like their courtship was really painful, and like it was a real will they won't they situation. Lincoln actually called off the engagement and then had this huge mental breakdown, and you know, we don't know exactly why he did that, but you know, Trip, he's coming back in being like, hey, maybe the reason he called it off is because he's gay. And Trip's also like, yeah, Lincoln was depressed all the time, he had all these bouts of depression. Maybe the reason he was so depressed was because he was gay. And let's just say, the eighteen forties not the best time to be gay.
So yeah. Throughout his book, Trip sort of.
Points to these random little moments where he's.
Like, hmm, that's suspicious. That's suspicious.
But the main evidence that he relied on for this book was that Lincoln had very close friendships with men, and Trip says, Hmmm, they might have been a little too close, because here's the tea.
I've said it many.
Times already, but back in the day, men were sharing beds, so that was normal. But what was abnormal was sharing a bed with a man for an extended period of time.
And Lincoln, well, he.
Shared a bed with his best friend, Joshua Speed. Not for a night, not for a week, but for four years. We'll be right back after these soothing advertisements. When Abraham Lincoln was twenty eight and eighteen thirty seven, he moved to Springfield, Illinois, and that's where he met twenty three year old Joshua Speed. The reason Lincoln moved there was to pursue his studies in a career as a lawyer. He had recently failed as a store owner and was in a bunch of debt. You know, he grew up poor in that log cabin and hardly had a penny to his name. I mean he didn't know it at the time, but soon every single penny would just have his name on it.
I mean, at least his face, I guess.
So anyway, Lincoln got on a borrowed horse headed to Springfield, ready to try to make something of himself. Joshua Speed, on the other hand, came from a rich family in Kentucky and was a bona fide gentleman, and at that time Speed was also trying to make something of himself. He was the owner of a general store in Springfield, and Lincoln walked in one day looking for betting. He was like, how much are the furnishings for a single bed? And Speed looked up the price of the mattress, the blankets, the sheets. He was like, it's going to be about seventeen dollars, and oh boy, was Lincoln unable.
To pay that. Speed wrote about this encounter many times, and here's what he said.
Lincoln said that that was pretty cheap enough, but small as the sum was, he was unable to pay it. But if I would credit him till Christmas and his experiment as a lawyer was a success, he would pay, then, saying in the saddest tone, if I fail in this, I do not know that I can ever pay you. I looked up, and I think now that I had never seen a sadder face. I said to him, you seem to be so pained at contracting so small a debt. I think I can suggest a plan by which you can avoid the debt.
And at the same time attain your end.
I have a large room with a double bed, upstairs, which you are very welcome to share with me.
Where is your room, said he? Upstairs, said I.
Pointing to a pair of winding stairs which led from the store to my room. Lincoln took his saddle bags in his arm, went upstairs and set them down on the floor, and came down with the most changed countenance, beaming with pleasure. He exclaimed, Well, Speed, I am moved. Doesn't this sound like the beginning of a porno? Poor young, ambitious man wants to be lawyer but can't afford a room, so sexy rich store clerk suggest his own bed. Yeah, it's not the most fluid of titles, but don't worry.
In the porno there will be a lot of fluid.
So yeah, Speed often told this version of the story of how the two met, But trip Our our historian psychologist, He's like, when I read this, I don't think it actually happened like that, because apparently Speed was already aware of Abraham Lincoln, because he had seen him the previous summer in eighteen thirty six, when Lincoln had given a speech and had basically roasted one of his opponents very well, you know, so that's sus Like, why didn't speed mention to Abraham Lincoln that he had seen him before. Trip's like, I mean, it's probably because he desired Lincoln and thought he would be a great bedfellow, so he was like, yes, Lincoln, come into my bed.
That's fine.
And as for the whole story of Lincoln going up to the room by himself and putting his saddle bags down, Trip was like, no one.
Would do that.
Speed would have shown him the room and then they would have looked at the bed, and then they might have looked at each other and been like, hmmm, I guess we can sleep in this bud together, with like a sexual implication. Trip also said that Speed's invitation for Lincoln to stay it didn't have any of the usual qualifiers that you would have, like, oh, yeah, you could stay for a few days or until you get settled. Instead, it was just immediately like, yeah, come live with me and sleep in my bed.
My dude.
Trip was like, who the heck would just invite a random guy to sleep in their bed for an unlimited amount of time unless they were trying to bone And then Trip also makes this other point. He's like, well, honestly, that bed they slept in was pretty small, and Abraham Winkin was pretty big, so skin to skin contact.
Would have been inevitable.
And you know, once you touch skin, you might as well touch other skins for skins.
That's what I'm saying. Maybe they were circumcised. I don't know. Someone probably does know. If you do, pervert.
And again I will say that the Abraham Lincoln historical establishment, they're like, no, they weren't boning. They were just boys in the bed. They're just good friends. But there's this other historian, Thomas A. Foster, and he does a lot of work on the history of sexuality in America.
What he says about Speed and Lincoln sharing.
A bed and becoming close friends, he said, without a doubt, given the cultural acceptance of close bonds between members of the same sex, individuals had the opportunity for private physical intimacy because their public bond would not have raised much concern. That's right, He's saying if they wanted to fuck, they could. And Speed himself said at one point about their friendship that no men were ever so intimate. Like does he just mean BFFs for life or does he mean I've been intimate because I've been up in those guts. So after they became bedfellows and became friends and maybe headfellows as well. Speed was the one who helped Lincoln get involved with socializing and society and stuff like that. They ran a discussion group called the young Men's Lyceum. This was in the back of the store, and they gathered a bunch of other men and they would talk about ideas and stuff. And then Speed also taught Lincoln how to flirt with women, because Speed he was very good at flirting. In fact, later on Mary Todd Lincoln called Speed one of the birds of passage. She said of him he had an ever changing heart, basically calling him a little slut. But yeah, Mary Todd was one of those ladies who Speed helped Lincoln flirt with, and her and Lincoln's relationship was very frustrating for her. Lincoln was sending a bunch of mixed messages.
It was rocky.
But anyway, after all this socializing, Lincoln and Speed were still sharing a bed. And remember they shared a bed for four years. But when their bedfellowing came to an end, that's when Lincoln started unraveling. Speed moved back to Kentucky in early eighteen forty one, and then Lincoln called off his engagement with Mary Todd. Are these two things related, I don't know, But what we know is that Lincoln was very distraught, so Speed invited him to come, say, with his family in Kentucky. Meanwhile, while Speed had been in Kentucky already, he had started courting this woman named Fanny Henning, and he was like, Hey, Lincoln, I need you to meet this lady so that you can see if it would be a good idea to like court her and then like maybe marry her. It seems that Lincoln was like, yeah, she's a good person.
I guess because Speed.
And Hinting got engaged, and apparently Lincoln had a great time in Kentucky and it helped him get back on his feed after all of his mental health problems. Then at the end of Lincoln's stay, he and Speed didn't part. What happened is that Speed apparently had like the flu or something, but he was still determined to go on this boat trip with Lincoln. You know, just two dudes out there fishing. Nothing gay has ever happened in that situation. And then after they did that trip, then Speed went back to Springfield with Lincoln and they rented a room together and then Speed just stayed there for months, even though his betrothed was in Kentucky. Speed left Springfield for the second time in January eighteen forty two because he had.
To go and get married.
Now, some historians are like, well, maybe Speed went to go hang out with Lincoln because he was really anxious about getting married. You know, he was nervous, he needed a friend.
But still it's.
Suspicious staying in the same room together for months right before Speed was getting married. Sus sus usparun pawn now Speed and Lincoln, they sent a lot of letters back and forth. So of course people have perused those letters, and some of them are quite interesting for this topic we are speaking about, because when you look at the tone of how Lincoln writes, it's filled with like yearning and insecurity, and it just feels very emotional, very sensual in a way. For example, there's one letter dated February thirteenth, eighteen forty two, and Lincoln wrote this to Speed just a few days after Speed had gotten married to Fanny Hinning. And in that letter he says, quote, you know, my desire to befriend you is everlasting, that I will never cease while I know how to do anything I do. Finally, hope that you will never again need any comfort from abroad. Comfort from abroad? You say, what kind of comfort? But it does seem that Speed and Lincoln had discussed at some point that they were both nervous about having sex with women. They're like, we don't know how to do it. I'm nervous that it's not gonna work.
What do you do?
So even if they aren't gay, they might have spent those many months together at the end of eighteen forty one just trying to figure out how to bang a woman that in fact is not very gay. That is not very gay of them at all. At the end of the letter, Abraham Lincoln says something that's pretty sus I would desire you to give my particular respects to Fanny, but perhaps you will not wish her to know you have received this, lest she should desire to see it. Write me whenever you have leisure yours forever A Lincoln ps. I have been quite a man since you left. Okay, because this is suspicious because he's like, hey, maybe don't let Fanny read this letter, and.
So like, why would it be bad for Fanny to read this letter.
What is it is the comfort talking about boning? Did she have suspicions about them having a relationship that was more than just BFFs? Or you know, you can do the other route too, being like maybe he doesn't want his wife to know that he's nervous about having sex with her or has any sort of anxiety about their relationship. Fine, you could read it that way, but that's less fun. In another letter that Lincoln wrote a few days later, In this letter, again it seems that Speed is nervous about consummating his marriage with Fanny.
But then there's this odd passage in this letter.
Lincoln says, you say that something indescribably horrible and alarming still haunts you. You will not say that three months from now I will venture when your nerves once get steady, now the whole trouble will be over forever. Nor should you become impatient at there being even very slow and becoming steady again. You say you much fear that that elysium of which you have dreamed so much is never to be realized. Well, if it shall not, I dare swear it will not be the fault of her, who is now your wife. I now have no doubt it is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of elysium fun exceeding all that anything earthly can realize. So what is this elysium? Is it just like butt sex Island? And then again, I guess you know you could say this again because Lincoln maybe didn't want Fanny to see them talking about being nervous about having sex. So again Lincoln's like, I write another letter inclosing this, which you can show her if she desires it. I do this because she would think, strangely, perhaps should you tell her that you receive no letters from me, or telling her you do should refuse to let her see them. I close this, entertaining the confident hope that every successive letter I shall have from you, which I hear pray may not be few nor far between, may show you possessing a more steady hand and cheerful heart than the last preceding it.
As ever, your friend, Lincoln.
Then it seems that Joshua Speed wrote Abraham Lincoln a letter that was like, Hey, me and Fanny, we finally boned. And this letter that Lincoln writes is the most yearning, sad letter I have seen. He says, dear speed your letter announcing that Miss Fanny and you are no more twained. But one flesh reached me this morning. I have no way of telling you how much happiness I wish you both, though I believe you both can conceive it. I feel somewhat jealous of both of you. Now you will be so exclusively concerned for one another that I shall be forgotten entirely. My acquaintance with Miss Fanny was too short for me to reasonably hope to long be remembered by her, and still I am sure I shall not forget her soon. I regret to learn that you have resolved to not return to Illinois. I shall be very lonesome without you, how miserably things seem to be arranged.
In this world.
If we had no friends, we have no pleasure, and if we have them, we are sure to lose them and be doubly pained by the loss. I did hope she and you would make your home here, but I own I have no right to insist you owe obligations to her ten thousand times more sacred than any you can owe to others. And in that light, let them be respected and observed. It is natural that she should desire to remain with her relatives and friends. As to friends, however, she could not need them anywhere. She would have them in abundance.
Here.
Write me often and believe me yours forever. Lincoln Oof so hard to read.
It's so sad.
Don't forget me now that you're getting pussy. Lincoln and Speed remain friends for the rest of their lives. I mean, I guess the rest of Abraham Lincoln's life, because we all know what happened to him.
Speed, on the.
Other hand, he became a politician in Kentucky, part of the Kentucky State Representatives. After Lincoln was assassed, Speed organized the memorial service for him.
Then he also.
Collected money to erect a monument in Springfield to honor him, and then Speed he died in eighteen eighty two.
So gay or nay? What do we think? Guys? What are we thinking? Because yeah, c A Trip wrote that book.
But the thing is that there is this other guy who was a gay activist who said for years that he had uncovered some secret diaries that had belonged to Joshua Speed that had been found under the floorboards of Speed's old store, and he was like, yeah, in these diaries, it proves that they had a gay relationship. But the thing is this guy he never published them and then he died.
And people were like, where are the freaking diaries? I think maybe this was just a hoax.
So gay or nay, I personally am a bisexual supremacist and believe that everyone is actually bisexual. So yeah, you could use the historical facts to be like, look, Abraham Lincoln was straight, or you can rearrange them somehow and do what Ca Tripp did and just say he's gay. Either way, it doesn't matter because actually he was bisexual like us all. As always, American Filth teaches us a lesson, and I think the lesson for today is that if you're a man and you don't want people to think you're gay, don't sleep in the same bed as another man for four years.
Fair few of the credits.
American Filth is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcast. This episode was written, hosted, sound designed, mixed, mastered by me Gabby Watts. Our senior producer is Amelia Brock. Our executive producers A Virginia Prescott, Elsie Crowley and Brandon Barr And let's not forget about the amazing theme song written by me and Jesse Niswanger. You can follow along with the pod on Instagram at American Field Pod. Also, please like, subscribe, review, hit some buttons, get that algorithm working. I'll talk at you next time. We got some more headfellows bedfellows. We will continue our historical outing
School of Humans.
