Abraham Lincoln slept with men-Joshua Speed and Capt. David Derickson. Could our 16th president have been bi-sexual? In my search for controversial issues to write about, I discovered the peculiar topic dealing with Abraham Lincoln’s sexuality. Apparently, Lincoln had several intimate male friends that he shared his bed with, and some scholars have speculated he may have had sexual relations with them. One of the individuals whom Lincoln had shared his bed with was named Joshua Speed, who he met in Springfield, Illinois in 1837. They lived together for four years, shared a bed, and maintained a life long friendship. Another man that Abraham Lincoln slept with was David Derickson, who was his bodyguard and intimate companion between September 1862 and April 1863. They allegedly shared a bed during the absences of Lincoln’s wife, until Derickson was promoted in 1863. Many people would say that it does not matter whether he was gay or not, but I believe that is an important factor in determining his presidency. For instance, if Abraham Lincoln was bi-sexual, we would be able to lend his endorsement for same sex marriage. Since he is such a popular president, his endorsement would surely be valuable. However, there is the little problem of interpreting what a dead person would have endorsed, and there is also the problem of evidence and cultural norms. Some critics of the “Gay Lincoln” theory claim that during Lincoln’s time there was no social stigma against sharing a bed with another man. Bed sharing between men did not necessarily mean homosexual activity, so in order to interpret this occurrence we would need to judge it, not by our cultural norms, but with the cultural norms of his time. With that said, I believe there is not enough evidence to confidently say that Abraham Lincoln was bisexual, and it does not really matter if he was. Sure I jokingly said Lincoln’s sexuality mattered, but the reality is that such a discovery would be interesting yet unimportant.