ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 16^th President of the United States, born (d: 1865); Only in a world that thinks that being Gay is an abnormal condition does the suggestion that a revered president might have been primarily Gay become an issue. C.A. Tripp went farther than any earlier study to present the greatest amount of evidence and the strongest argument currently available that Lincoln’s primary erotic response was that of a homosexual man in his posthumously published book, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln.

Over the years, a number of other writers and scholars had argued that Lincoln was homosexual, but Tripp objected to the evidence, finding it unconvincing. He then set out to collect as much information as he could on Lincoln and explore the 16^th president’s sexuality in all its dimensions and complexity. What he created was neither a work of sexual or biological reductionism, but a full-fledged character study and a significant effort to understand a complicated man, that placed Lincoln’s sexuality into a larger, more significant framework.

There are, as usual, the dismissals of his evidence as “misreadings” of the customs of another time. And yet the evidence of the relationship Lincoln had with his wife Mary is as obscure and subject to interpretation as are his relationships with the important men in his life and there is no problem accepting those vagueries. As any modern Gay man will attest, Lincoln may have functioned as a heterosexual, but his marriage does not preclude an intense homosexual drive.

From 1862 to 1863, President Lincoln was accompanied by a bodyguard from the Pennsylvania Bucktail Brigade named Captain David Derickson. Unlike Lincoln’s earlier male friend, Joshua Speed, Derickson was a prodigious father, marrying twice and siring ten children. Like Speed, however, Derickson became a close friend of the president and also shared his bed while Mary Todd was away from Washington. According to an 1895 regimental history written by one of Derickson’s fellow officers:

“Captain Derickson, in particular, advanced so far in the President’s confidence and esteem that, in Mrs. Lincoln’s absence, he frequently spent the night at his cottage, sleeping in the same bed with him, and — it is said — making use of His Excellency’s night-shirt!”

Another source, the well-connected wife of Lincoln’s naval adjundant, wrote in her diary: “Tish says, ‘there is a Bucktail Soldier here devoted to the President, drives with him, & when Mrs L. is not home, sleeps with him.’ What stuff!” Derickson’s association with Lincoln ended with his promotion and transfer in 1863.

Sadly, Tripp died in May 2003, and we will never know how he would have defended his study of the sexual orientation of Abraham Lincoln. But any Gay man reading of Lincoln’s seduction of a 44-year old captain of the Pennsylvania Bucktails in the fall of 1862, will have little trouble with the remaining arguments. But it does give a whole new meaning to the term “rail-splitter” doncha think?

PHILIP, PRINCE ZU EULENBURG-HERTEFELD, politician and diplomat of imperial Germany was born (d. 1921); Those who think that Oscar Wilde was the only popular figure crucified for the love that dare not speak its name, don’t know their German history. The Eulenberg trial, if anything, was even smarmier than the Wilde case, since the reasons for “exposing” the well-liked and gentle Eulenberg were strictly political.

Upon the accession of his friend Wilhelm to the thrones of Prussia and Germany, count Eulenburg assumed an unofficial position of immense influence, and among other things, was instrumental in the appointment of Bernhard von Bulow as head of the foreign office in 1897.Wilhelm II had long desired the appointment of "his own Bismarck" - a powerful chancellor who would enact the Kaiser's will - and Eulenburg was the first to suggest Bülow for this role.

In 1900, count Philip was created Prince of Eulenburg and Hertefeld, and to continue his wife's otherwise soon-to-be-extinguishing comital name, also Count of Sandels. Count Philip of Eulenburg married at Stockholm on November 20, 1875 Augusta Sandels (Stockholm May 12, 1853- Liebenberg December 14, 1941), daughter of the last Count Sandels. Sources say that he continued his "individual" lifestyle also after the marriage. They had eight children.

The favorite of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Eulenberg had attempted to dissuade the emperor from a militaristic course and naturally had to be disposed of in the quickest way by the merchants of death. Although he was married, Eulenburg was connected in homosexual liaisons with members of the Kaiser’s inner circle, including count Kuno von Moltke, the military commander of Berlin. Smeared as a “degenerate” by his enemies, the oldest political trick in the book, Eulenberg was swiftly ruined. The public exposure of these liaisons in 1907 led to the Harden-Eulenburg Affair. In 1908 Eulenburg was placed on trial for perjury due to his denial of his homosexuality; the trial was repeatedly postponed due to Eulenburg’s claim of poor health. Eulenburg died in 1921. Historians speculate that without Eulenburg's moderating influence, Kaiser Wilhelm stumbled into World War I.

FRANCO ZEFFIRELLI, Italian director and designer, born; An  Italian film director, he is also an opera director, designer and producer of opera, theatre, film and television. Internationally, he is known for having directed the 1968 film version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet for which he was nominated to receive an  Academy Award. His 1977 television mini-series Jesus of Nazareth also won acclaim and is still shown on Easter weekend in many countries. In the post war years, he studied art and architecture at the University of Florence, and worked with directors such as Vittorio de Sica, Roberto Rossellini and Luchino Visconti. In the 1960s, he made his name designing and directing his own plays in London and New York, and soon transferred his ideas to cinema.

Zeffirelli has also been a major director of opera productions since the 1950s in Italy, Europe and the U.S. Of particular note is his 1964 Royal Opera House production of Tosca with Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi, and several productions for the Metropolitcan Opera in New York, including La bohème and Turandot. Also of note is his set design for Madama Butterfly in the fall of 1985 for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In November 2004 he was awarded an honorary knighthood by the United Kingdom.

Zeffirelli is out Gay and has received criticism from religious groups for what they call the blasphemous representation of biblical figures in his films and also criticism from members of the Gay community for publicly backing the Roman Catholic church with regard to Gay issues. Director Bruce Robinson claimed to have been the unwanted target of sexual advances by Zeffirelli during the filming of Romeo and Juliet in which Robinson had a minor acting role. Robinson says that he based the lecherous character of Uncle Monty in the film Withnail and I on Zeffirelli.

In 2007, disappointed with the manner in which Pope Benedict XVI had been presenting himself to the media, Zeffirelli openly offered his services to the Pontiff as an image consultant. In connection with this matter, he was quoted as saying "I am a Christian down to the depths of my spirit.”  Zeffirelli has also been a member of the Italian senate since 1996, representing the Forza Italia party.

PAUL SHENAR, American actor, born (d: 1989); An American actor born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Shenar gained attention playing larger-than-life entertainment legends on 1970s television. He portrayed Orson Welles in the TV movie The Night that Panicked America (1975) (TV) and Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. in Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women (1978) (TV).

He is probably best known for playing the murderous drug lord Alejandro Sosa in Brian DePalma's 1983 feature film version of Scarface, opposite Al Pacino.

A founding member, actor, director and teacher of the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Francisco, he played more than forty roles there, including Hamlet, Oedipus Rex, and Tiny Alice. Known for his unsympathetic portrayals, he voiced the evil rat Jenner in the animated feature The Secret of NIMH (1982).

He also had a very successful career as a commercial voice actor, and was the sexy basso-baritone voice of Mercedes Benz, and Oil of Olay. He was in a long-term relationship with actor Jeremy Brett ("Sherlock Holmes") in the 70s.

He was also a lover of this humble reporter in the early 80s, and I can personally report that he had a voice that was just about as sexy as you can imagine. He called me, from the road, once when I was living in New Haven, CT. My housemate answered the phone and handed it to me, saying “I feel like I’ve just been f**ked!” Paul Shenar died of HIV-AIDS-related complications in West Hollywood, California.

SAL MINEO, American actor died (b. 1939); A Golden Globe-winning  American singer, film and theatre actor, best known for his Academy award-nominated performance opposite James Dean in the film  Rebel Without A Cause but after a period of playing to ethnic stereotype, his career flagged. By 1976 Mineo's career seemed to be turning around again. Playing the role of a Gay burglar in a San Francisco run of the stage comedy P.S. Your Cat is Dead, he received substantial publicity from many positive reviews and moved on to  Los Angeles with the play.

Arriving home after a rehearsal on February 12, 1976, Mineo was stabbed to death in the alley behind a West Hollywood apartment building. He was 37 years old. He was stabbed just once, not repeatedly as first reported, but the blade struck his heart, leading to immediate and massive internal bleeding. A career criminal named Lionel Ray Williams was later sentenced to life in prison for killing Mineo. Although there was considerable confusion relating to what witnesses had seen in the darkness the night Mineo was murdered, Williams was reported to have boasted of the crime, which turned out to be a botched mugging. At the time of the murder, Williams had no idea who Mineo was.

After 50 years together LGBT pioneers Phyllis Lyon & Del Martin are first to wed in San Francisco weddings.

TODAY'S GAY WISDOM

 Harry Hay and the American Labor Movement

In 1934, Harry Hay attended the legendary Longshoreman's Strike in San Francisco, known as the San Francisco General Strike, to perform agit-prop theatre with his lover, actor Will Geer. During one of their performances, bullets rang out as the National Guard opened fire on the workers. Several workers were killed in that melee, but more would be killed before the government's crackdown on the strike ended. The strike culminated with a funeral march on Market Street, San Francisco's main street, which was the largest public demonstration to take place in its day.

Harry became active in the Communist Party the previous year, drawn to it through his relationship with actor Will Geer. (Geer would go on to entertain millions weekly as Grandpa Walton on the television series The Waltons.) Like many artists and intellectuals of the time, Harry & Geer were drawn to the Communist Party because they witnessed the economic devastation of America's Great Depression that began in 1929. Millions were out of work, starving and homeless, and economic recovery would not occur until America entered the Second World War in 1941.

Union organizing was often brutally suppressed during this the first half of the twentieth century, in fact, some were outlawed. Harry's Communist Party Section Organizer, Miriam Sherman "saw countless numbers of my friends beaten and clubbed on picket lines," and thought she would die on the barricades. But such fears did not stop countless organizers like Harry who went out to fight for those who had no rights. According to Frank Pestana, a labor organizer and lawyer from the period, "The objectives of the Communist Party were objectives that have been realized today and are part of what we live with. They were fighting for workmen's comp, job security, medical care, all the things that we know and have now. Social security was a dream that they were pushing."

In 1935 Harry and Geer went to the San Joaquin Valley to organize migratory workers. Like the United Farm Workers, headed by Caesar Chavez three decades later, they fought for fair wages, decent housing conditions, health care and education for children. Harry also became involved with the Hollywood Film and Photo League. Over the course of the next three years Harry worked on a variety of progressive causes including EPIC, Upton Sinclair's End Poverty in California campaign, Hollywood Anti-Nazi League and Workers Alliance of America.

In 1938 Harry met his wife, Anita Platsky, on the picket lines of a dockworkers strike. As tireless activists, they documented the poor housing conditions in Los Angeles for the Communist Party newspaper People's World. Through the Second World War, Harry remained active in many political causes including the Theater Arts Committee for Peace and Democracy, Russian War Relief, and the New Theater League.

Harry continued his labor activism until his death in 2002, sometimes working with and speaking to gay and lesbian labor groups. In 2001 he was awarded a lifetime membership in the Industrial Workers of the World.