Have we had a homosexual President? These are the odds
Bottom Line: It’s safe to say that Donald J. Trump isn’t homosexual. That’s likely something we can all agree on about him. But is that necessarily true of all prior presidents? By now it’s well known that due to society-based expectations in times previous, no shortage of people who were homosexual married and often had children in the name of expectations. Heck, I worked with a guy in the 90’s who was 47 with four kids when he came out of the closet, divorced his wife and embraced homosexuality. It happened. But what about Presidential homosexuality?
2020 Democratic Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s recent interview with Axios, which included his statement that we’ve likely had a homosexual president has raised the question and sent many down the path of wondering. In a historical context there’s one who’s always stood out as the most likely candidate and for the most obvious reason. The 15th President of the United States, James Buchanan, was single and remained so until he died. For that reason, dating back to his time as President, there’s been the rumor that he was the first gay president. It’s possible but unless new historically revealing documents are unearthed, it’ll always be nothing more than conjecture. So, about the question. What are the odds? Relatively low but given that we’ve had 45 presidents - well maybe James was after all. I’ll explain.
If we accept that sexuality is determined by composition at birth, as I do and scientific evidence suggests is the case, the number is rather genetically static. The problem in getting a true read is that there’s been a rise in people claiming they’re homosexual that’s directly related to the proliferation of gay rights and the LGBT movement. For example, in 2012 Gallup polled 3.5% of Americans as identifying as homosexual. Most recently that number is up to 4.5%. That’s a 29% increase in homosexuality in seven years.
Human history stretches back at least 300,000 years (oldest human bones carbon dated). It’s not scientifically possible for that type of scientific shift in seven years – period. So, what’s real? The longest running accredited research on the topic comes from England’s Office for National Statistics. They’ve studied sexuality for decades (going back to the 50’s and have shown consistent results regardless of the times (as they weed out those who’d experimented from permanent lifestyles). The findings. Based on country homosexuality has ranged from 1.1% to 2.7%. The average has been around 1.8% over time.
That means for about every 100 presidents we’d have about two would be homosexual if they reflected our society. We’re up to 45. So, who knows, maybe James was the first?