Was Abe Lincoln Really Gay?

It seems the rumors of Abe Lincoln’s homosexuality have been greatly exaggerated—at least according to a new book by the author whose researched sparked the enduring speculation about our 16th president.

In his new book, Your Friend Forever, A Lincoln: The Enduring Friendship of Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed, psychoanalyst and history professor Charles Strozier debunks and complicates the misconceptions that arose from his own depiction of Lincoln and Speed’s friendship in his 1982 book Lincoln’s Quest for Union. The key to understanding the true nature of that relationship, according to Strozier, is understanding the difference in both the way sexuality was understood and the way male friendships functioned in the 19th century.

Related: Republican Official Outs George W. Bush, Karl Rove AND Obama In Gay Sex Scandal Of The Ages

“The historical context is really important to understand,” Storzier told The Daily Beast recently. “Now where homosexuality is so much more accepted … we accept males loving one another and being sexual with one another. But in the 19th century, the taboo of homosexuality is absolutely rigid. Whitman was gay. He had to stay in the closet. Sodomy, buggery, was illegal and severely prescribed. But friendship, intimate, loving friendship like that between Lincoln and Speed, was not only accepted but encouraged as the long as the boundary against sexualization was rigidly and absolutely maintained.”

Strozier goes on to insist that despite the ways contemporary culture might interpret their relationship, there is no evidence to suggest that Lincoln and Speed’s relationship was sexual. However, it was “loving and close.” In fact, Strozier says, it may have saved Lincoln’s life: “Lincoln was in very bad shape when they got together … Speed provided a safety, a security, a loving relationship. And I think it was loving in the way that Aristotle talks about loving between men, real friendship between men.”

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Sexy Body-Positive Photo Series Challenges Perceptions Of Male Beauty

“I started this series to bring body positivity to the queer male community and to celebrate the many different shapes and sizes within it,” photographer Adam Moco tells Queerty about his most recent series Bare. “I primarily use gay hookup apps to find models. For Bare, I also opened it up to people in my daily life because I wanted to showcase a wide variety of men.”

Related: Gay Hookup Culture Captured In Beautiful Homoerotic Photo Series

Moco, A Toronto native who is currently based in Lisbon, Portugal, says he hopes to challenge how some gay men speak about their various types and preferences, specifically guys who write things like “no fats,” “no femmes” or “no Asians” on their dating profiles.

“What concerns me is users whose online dating profiles are restrictive and blatantly rude in how they project preferences,” he explains. “I don’t think there is anything wrong with having sexual preferences, but I do think the way preferences are expressed is wrong.”

Related: Barbie’s Gonna Flip When She Sees What Ken And His Buddies Are Up To

Moco continues: “There is a difference between preferences and tastes versus outright racism, sizeism and the like, and it’s the latter that is problematic. Bare is my way of creating an inclusive platform for those who want to celebrate their bodies.”

Scroll down for a sampling of Moco’s BARE series, and see more at his website…

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A Just-Married Gay Couple’s Guide to Planning a Wedding: WATCH

YouTubers Will and (former Towleroad contributor) RJ got married! Congrats guys!

They say that planning their wedding was, to be quite honest, a lot of work, some of it having to do with challenges they had to deal with because they’re gay, so they thought they would offer a few tips for those of you planning your weddings….

Things like why you shouldn’t get hung up on tradition, or if you’re going to have a problem with wedding vendors because you’re gay (spoiler alert: you probably won’t, even in the South).

Says RJ: “Turns out, those ‘not bake wedding cake people‘ – turns out they’re like shark attacks. They exist, but they’re surprisingly rare. You see them all over the news and you think they’re way more common than they are.”

Also, be prepared to get jacked on the price for everything and what’s going to cost you the most. Who you should invite – people who are there to support you and not people you feel obliged to invite.

And don’t forget to have fun with the ceremony – it’s not about what you spend but the thought you put into it.

Does it feel different once you’re married?

Find out:

Oh, and PS – here’s their wedding:

Once again, congrats guys!

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Gay Couple Assaulted by Cop and Jailed for Kissing in Grocery Store to Receive $80K Settlement

You may recall the story of Courtney Wilson and her girlfriend Taylor Guerrero, a Los Angeles couple, who filed a federal lawsuit in October 2015 claiming they were attacked by a Honolulu police officer on their second day of vacation in the state after he witnessed them kissing in a grocery store.

Said Guerrero: “We were holding hands and I was kissing her cheek. He was like you girls, you girls can’t do that in here.”

It was then that the officer, a 26-year veteran of the force, followed them to the checkout, threatened to arrest them for trespassing, and then got physical when Guerrero tried to call the police, they say.

Hawaii News Now reported:

“I got punched in the face by him,” Wilson said. “I split my nose open. We were on the ground.” The women said Foodland employees were then instructed to hold them down until someone found zip ties.

“They took us down to the basement of Foodland where they continued to harass us about our conduct in the store, asking us if it was worth it, if we were happy where we are,” Wilson said.

“We were just shocked that it all happened.”

The two were arrested for assaulting a police officer and had to use the money they came to the islands with to post bail. As a condition of their release, they couldn’t leave Oahu and wound up sleeping in a park. After five months, prosecutors threw out the case, said their attorney, Eric Seitz.

The issue is being settled out of court:

Honolulu has agreed to pay $80,000 to settle a lawsuit from two gay women who allege a police officer wrongfully arrested them after seeing them kissing in a grocery store.

Details of the settlement were announced Friday in federal court in Honolulu. It’s still subject to City Council approval. The council is expected to consider the settlement at a July 6 meeting, said Honolulu Deputy Corporation Counsel Nicolette Winter.

The post Gay Couple Assaulted by Cop and Jailed for Kissing in Grocery Store to Receive $80K Settlement appeared first on Towleroad.

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Ryan Gosling Licked a Man’s Hairy Belly and He Wasn’t Ready for It: WATCH

After discussing the size of Tom Daley’s speedos, Graham Norton’s panel last night moved on to that time Ryan Gosling licked a man’s hairy belly.

RELATED: Ryan Gosling’s Lost Prison Strip Scene: VIDEO

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” resisted Gosling.

“It’s a funny story, tell it,” demanded Norton.

Gosling said that his arms and legs were forced into an awkward position during a Turkish massage and his mouth ended up in a place he didn’t recognize.

Said Gosling:

“You know when you get something weird in your mouth and if you’re eating something your brain sends your tongue to figure out what it is? It’s not a conscious thought it’s just like ‘is that a bone? Figure that out.’ Your tongue goes in to figure it out. My tongue was like ‘what is that? It’s a hairy belly!’

Watch:

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One Year After Referendum in Ireland, Equal Rights for Same-Sex Couples Advances Around the Globe

One year ago tomorrow, over 60 percent of Irish voters voted ‘yes’ in the first-ever national referendum for marriage equality in the world. Since Ireland became the 18th country to decide to afford same-sex couples full marriage rights, marriage equality and the rights of same-sex couples have moved forward in several countries around the globe.

While civil unions do not afford the same rights as full marriage equality, these cases have also raised the visibility and struggles of same-sex couples around their perspective countries.

A month after Ireland’s vote, the Supreme Court of the United States found bans on marriage equality to be unconstitutional in a historic 5-4 ruling, making marriage equality the law of the land in all 50 states.

In November 2015, Cyprus’ parliament overwhelmingly passed a landmark law that grants civil partnership rights to same-sex couples.

In March, HRC reported that the small British Overseas Territory of Bermuda, a collection of small North Atlantic islands about 700 miles east of North Carolina, will hold a referendum on marriage equality and same-sex civil unions.

Last month, marriage equality advocates in Chile held an important meeting with President Bachelet and presented their proposed marriage equality bill. Advocates at the meeting told HRC that the president agreed that the bill should be introduced as soon as possible.

That same month, Colombia’s Constitutional Court in favor of marriage equality for the nation’s same-sex couples.

Earlier this month, Italy’s parliament voted 369-193 in favor of same-sex civil unions. Before this vote, Italy was the only country in Western Europe with no legal form of recognition for same-sex couples.

On Tuesday, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto submitted an official proposal to Congress that would allow nationwide marriage equality in Mexico. While marriage equality is the law of the land in nine Mexican states and the Federal District of Mexico City, marriage equality continues to be denied to same-sex couples in 23 of Mexico’s states. This means that same-sex couples living in states without marriage equality still need to each seek legal recourse.

While we have seen and celebrated progress, we have also dealt with defeat. In April, a court in China dismissed a man’s request to marry his male partner. While this is a setback for those fighting for equality, LGBT advocates agree that this case has raised the visibility of LGBT people in China, who continue to make important advances. The plaintiff plans to continue his fight in court to marry his partner.

Additionally, HRC is working closely with Australian Marriage Equality and other advocates as they fight to make Australia the next country to open its doors to marriage equality. HRC Global also attended Taiwan Pride in October 2015 where then presidential candidate Tsai Ing-Wen, who went on to win elections and was inaugurated as the country’s first female president yesterday, announced her support for marriage equality. Now that Tsai is in power, marriage equality is possible in Taiwan in 2016.

www.hrc.org/blog/one-year-after-referendum-in-ireland-rights-for-same-sex-couples-advance?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

The New ‘Star Trek’ Trailer is Beyond: WATCH

Star Trek Beyond, starring Idris Elba, Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Anton Yelchin and Karl Urban, dropped late yesterday at a fan event and features the Enterprise being torn to shreds by a terrifying shroud of alien creatures.

The alien leader even dares to sit in Captain Kirk’s chair.

The film is premiering in IMAX at Comic-Con on July 20 and hits theatres two days later.

Watch:

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Texas GOP Platform Has a Grammar FAIL, Declares Most Texans are Gay

The Republican Party of Texas recently announced its (not surprisingly) heinous platform, but it’s a grammar fail which this week grabbed the most headlines.

Says the platform:

Homosexuality is a chosen behavior that is contrary to the fundamental unchanging truths that has [sic] been ordained by God in the Bible, recognized by our nations [sic] founders, and shared by the majority of Texans.

Writs Dale Carpenter in the Washington Post:

Language is complex, rules of usage are not ironclad laws, and people make minor and unimportant grammatical mistakes all the time. Usually they deserve charity. The unlettered quality of a statement is nothing next to its toxic substance.

But Texas GOP leaders adhere to a pinched form of literalism in law and life, so they deserve to be taken strictly at their word: “Homosexuality is a chosen behavior that . . . has been . . . shared by the majority of Texans.”

To be fair, the new platform language does not actually assert that most Texans are gay. It claims only that they “share” homosexuality. But what can this possibly mean? Perhaps it means that there is a certain amount of homosexuality that most Texans pass around to each other. If someone doesn’t seem to have enough, one Texan may loan or even give another Texan some of his. Or it could refer to a trait that most Texans have in common, like good taste in barbecue. Of course, it should be emphasized that a majority but not all Texans share homosexuality. There may be some who hoard it.

The full section:

Homosexuality- Homosexuality is a chosen behavior that is contrary to the fundamental unchanging truths that has been ordained by God in the Bible, recognized by our nations founders, and shared by the majority of Texans. Homosexuality must not be presented as an acceptable alternative lifestyle, in public policy, nor should family be redefined to include homosexual couples. We oppose the granting of special legal entitlements or creation of special status for homosexual behavior, regardless of state of origin. We oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values.

Read the full platform below (if you want to gag):

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PHOTOS: Motel Men

www.advocate.com/photography/2016/5/21/photos-motel-men