James Buchanan | The Queer and Now

Newsweek cover - Obama as first gay president

The Newsweek cover image

This week’s edition of Newsweek, with is it’s poorly photoshopped cover declaring Barack Obama our first gay president, has caused quite a stir.
The reference is itself sensationalistic and dumb, playing on the
notion of Bill Clinton being our first black president. Too bad, too,
since the discussion about Newsweek’s cover distracts from the
interesting article by Andrew Sullivan inside the magazine.

Okay, so Newsweek didn’t mean for us to take it literally. But it didn’t take long for outlets like Daily Kos and Salon to point out that not only is Obama not gay, our first gay president was most likely James Buchanan. And his presumed lover? Our first gay vice president, Rufus King. And Obama is not (even nominally) our second gay president as that title most likely belongs to Abe Lincoln. As long as we’re on a gay civics lesson, which Federalist was queer? Alexander Hamilton,
our first bisexual cabinet member. To find out more about these queer
18th and 19th century politicians, follow the links below:

Read more about our first gay president and our first gay vice president, James Buchanan and Rufus King.

Read more about our first queer cabinet member, Alexander Hamilton.

There have always been queer people and their will always be queer
people. That some of our presidents or early statesmen enjoyed the
affections of other men should really come as no surprise.

James Buchanan

Some historians believe that Buchanan, our only bachelor president,
may have had an intimate relationship with Rufus King, our only bachelor
vice president. A blog post at Presidential History Geeks writes about the open-secret relationship between the two men:

While in Washington, Buchanan’s “room
mate” was Senator Rufus King. The two men were virtually inseparable and
were rumored to be lovers.They shared a house and a bedroom (this
apparently was not uncommon for the time.) Many openly wrote and spoke
this accusation. For example, Tennessee Governor Aaron Brown was sent to
Washington as an advance man for President-Elect Polk, and wrote Polk
back, describing King as Buchanan’s “better half” and as “Aunt Nancy” (a
derogatory term for homosexuals). Although Buchanan was unmarried,
Brown writes to Polk: “General Saunders, in the presence of Mr. Buchanan
and his wife and some others, advanced the opinion that
neither Mr. Calhoun nor Mr. Van Buren had any chance to be elected…and
being asked by someone, who then can be, he forgot himself and said that
Colonel Polk could run better than any man in the nation. This of
course was highly indecorous toward Mrs. B.” Former President Andrew
Jackson would also refer to Rufus King as “Miss Nancy” and “Aunt Fancy”,
both being derogatory terms for gay men in the 19th century.

Rufus King (image by Matthew Brady)

In my opinion, the most interesting evidence of Buchanan’s
homosexuality is an excerpt of a letter he wrote to a female friend
after King left the States to become the ambassador to France:

“I am now solitary and alone having no
companion in the house with me. I have gone wooing to several gentlemen
but have not succeeded with any of them. I feel that it is not good for
man to be alone, and I should not be astonished to find myself married
to some old maid who can nurse me when I am sick, provide good dinners
for me when I am well, and not expect from me any very ardent or
romantic affection.”

Return to the main article.

Read about our second gay/queer president, Abraham Lincoln.

Read about our first queer Cabinet member, Alexander Hamilton.

The Queer and Now

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Tag Archives: James Buchanan

Is Obama our first gay president? Nope, we’ve already had a couple queer men in the Oval Office (and at least one in the Cabinet)

The first gay president? James Buchanan. The first gay vice president? Rufus King.