America's First Gay President? (Britain, countries, why, ally)
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According to this anti-capital punishment site, between 1608 and 2002 there were 15 executions for sodomy/buggery/bestiality out of a total of 14,810 total executions in lands that became part of the U. S., or in the U. S. proper. During the same period there were 35 executions for witchcraft, and I would be willing to bet that any execution for a consensual homosexual act occurred during that same period (I am pretty sure the colonial period only covered the time they were English colonies).
The list contains predominately crimes for which no one would be executed in modern times. The 4th most frequent on the list with 251 executions was "House Break-in Burglary." The fifth most frequent was "robbery."
I started trying to research the question online and discovered nearly all of the articles concerned modern homosexual executions in Iran and by ISIS. I also came across this:
Appalling Bill To Legalize Killing Gay People In California Submitted By Local Lawyer, Matthew Gregory McLaughlin
Quote:
A lawyer in California has proposed a ballot measure allowing the execution of gay people, and — despite predictable outrage — the state's Attorney General Kamala Harris might be required to circulate the measure. The “Sodomite Suppression Act,” filed by Orange County attorney Matthew Gregory McLaughlin on Feb. 24, would permit gays and lesbians to be “put to death by bullets to the head” if found to have engaged in homosexual acts. Because McLaughlin followed the letter of the law in submitting his proposal, Harris is obligated to circulate the despicable document for signatures.
In the measure, McLaughlin refers to gay sex as “a monstrous evil that Almighty God … commands us to suppress on pain of utter destruction.” His proposal seeks to pave the way to that domination by fear, by ensuring homosexuals could be punished with a bullet to the head, or “by any other convenient method.” The punishment would be required for anyone who had touched a person of the same sex in pursuit of sexual gratification.
The bill goes on to anticipate the California Judiciary striking down the measure should it pass, and in such an eventuality, calls for a law which makes it legal for vigilante groups to kill homosexuals.
Bohemians could get away with homosexuality to an extent back in the 18th and 19th centuries. Walt Whitman found ways to have lovers. Whether a member of "respectable" society could get away with it depended upon whether or not they could count on the people around them to keep a secret, to keep them from being prosecuted. If no one complained and if there were no headlines, then a "secret" was still a secret. This backfired for Oscar Wilde when he ticked off a well-connected British aristocrat who dragged him into court.
I think that the homosexual "underground" was more prevalent back in the old days than we're really aware now.... My grandmother went to work as a cook at a large east coast hotel back in the 1920s as a teenager. She was there when a young male employee was fired for apparently getting caught working as a male prostitute at the hotel. There were well-to-do male guests who were his clients. So, stuff happened. Lots of people kept themselves busy keeping secrets.
Anyone in California that wants to go to the trouble can propose a ballot measure about anything, it's not as though this character is an elected official of some sort.
Bohemians could get away with homosexuality to an extent back in the 18th and 19th centuries. Walt Whitman found ways to have lovers. Whether a member of "respectable" society could get away with it depended upon whether or not they could count on the people around them to keep a secret, to keep them from being prosecuted. If no one complained and if there were no headlines, then a "secret" was still a secret. This backfired for Oscar Wilde when he ticked off a well-connected British aristocrat who dragged him into court.
I think that the homosexual "underground" was more prevalent back in the old days than we're really aware now.... My grandmother went to work as a cook at a large east coast hotel back in the 1920s as a teenager. She was there when a young male employee was fired for apparently getting caught working as a male prostitute at the hotel. There were well-to-do male guests who were his clients. So, stuff happened. Lots of people kept themselves busy keeping secrets.
Had no idea Whitman was homosexual. Thanks for shedding light on that!
Call me naive but I don't think sleeping in the same bed is proof of anything. Especially when people had large families and tiny homes. Sharing a bed was a necessity. When you grow up sharing beds then it feels, and likely is, completely ordinary.
Sharing a bed at that time in history means almost nothing.
I think in Buchanan's case it went far beyond this.
Why does anyone care who Buchanan, Lincoln or anyone else slept with? Is it relevant to anything? Does it change history in any way?
Not really. I think the average of American doesn't know who James Buchanan was, let alone his sexual orientation.
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