'First homosexual American president'

"The rights of homosexual people are human rights, and human rights are for everyone." -- Ricky Martin

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- On November 8, 2016, the Americans will make history: either they will elect their first woman president, or they will elect the first president virtually unknown in geopolitics and who came from the reality TV.
The United States will crown either Hillary Clinton (Democratic Party) or Donald J. Trump (Republican Party) as the 45th president.
But it was on March 4, 1857 when the U.S. may have sent to the White House its first "homosexual" president.
The Fascinating Book of History tells us that before he became U.S. president, the unmarried James Buchanan (Democratic Party) "enjoyed a long, close association with his housemate, William R. King--and so close that unconfirmed speculation about the pair still swirls after more than 150 years."
Was Buchanan--the nation's only bachelor chief executive--also its first homosexual president?
The year 1834 was a momentous one for 42-year-old Buchanan. Already a veteran political leaderand diplomat, Buchanan won a seat in the U.S. Senate and formed a friendship with the man who would be his dearest companion for the next two decades.

INSEPARABLE

Buchanan and his chum, William Rufus de Vane King, a U.S. senator from Alabama, became virtually inseparable.
They reportedly shared quarters in Washington D.C., for 15 years. Capitol wits referred to the partners--who attended social events together--as "the Siamese twins."
Buchanan's bond with Senator King was reportedly so close that the future president described it as a "communion." In praising his friend as "among the best, purest, and most consistent public men I have ever known," Buchanan added that King was a "very gay, elegant-looking fellow."
The adjective "gay," however, didn't mean "homosexual" back then. It commonly meant "merry."
It's also useful to understand that it was not unusual for educated men to wax rhapsodic about other men during the 19th century. Admiring rather than sexual, this sort of language signified shared values and deep respect.
Historians rightly point out a lack of evidence that either of the bachelors found men sexually attractive. They note that when Buchanan was younger, he asked a Pennsylvania heiress to marry him. (She reportedly broke off the engagement.) Later, he was known to flirt with fashionable women.

CASUAL

Whatever the nature of his friendship with Buchanan, King reportedly seemed to consider it something more than casual. After the Alabaman became U.S. minister to France in 1844, he wrote home from Paris, expressing his worry that Buchanan would "procure an associate who will cause you to feel no regret at our separation."
Buchanan reportedly did not find such replacement, but it was apparently not for want of trying. He wrote to another friend of his attempts to ease the loneliness caused by King's absence: "I have gone a wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with any one of them..."
Sometimes the pair reportedly drew derisive jibes from their peers. The jokes often targeted King, a bit of a dandy with a fondness for silk scarves.
In a private letter, Tennessee congressman Aaron V. Brown used the pronoun "she" to refer to the senator, and called him Buchanan's "wife." President Andrew Jackson mocked King as "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy." 
Despite the childish jokes, both Buchanan and King advanced to ever-more-important federal posts. President James K. Polk selected Buchanan as his secretary of state in 1845. King won the office of U.S. vice president (running on a ticket with Franklin Pierce) in 1852. Voters selected Buchanan to the White House four years later.

ILL

Unfortunately, either of the friends reportedly distinguished himself in the highest office he reached. King fell ill and died less than a month after taking the oath as vice president.
Erupting conflicts over slavery and states' right reportedly marred Buchanan's single term in the Oval Office. Historians give him failing marks for his lack of leadership as the Civil War loomed. 
The pro-slavery chief executive (he was a Pennsylvania Democrat) reportedly opposed secession of the Southern states but argued that the federal government had no authority to use force to stop it.
As a result, Buchanan reportedly made no efforts to save the Union, leaving that task to his successor, Abraham Lincoln. 
Would Buchanan have risen to the highest office in the land if his peers honestly believed he was homosexual? It's hard to say. 
Today's perception is that 19th-century Americans were more homophobic than their 21st-century descendants.  Yet in an era when sexuality stayed tucked beneath Victorian wraps, there was a reportedly de facto "don't ask, don't tell" policy for virtually any profession.
Whatever their private proclivities, Buchanan and King clearly excelled in their private lives--at least until Buchanan got into the White House.
Based on what little evidence history provides, either man's sexual orientation had much, if any, bearing on what he accomplished, or failed to accomplish, in his career.