Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Pete Sessions have come under criticism recently (including from FRC President Tony Perkins) over their decision to help the “Log Cabin Republicans” (LCR) raise money to elect pro-homosexual candidates by speaking at an LCR event on September 22.  Those who bought tickets to the event were clearly told that the “proceeds benefit LCR PAC.”

The Log Cabin Republicans have been at the forefront of trying to mainstream radical homosexual activism within the Republican party. They have tried to perpetuate (and Cornyn and Sessions seem to have fallen for) a myth that they are faithful Republicans who only have a small quibble with conservatives on issues involving homosexuality. But LCR’s refusal to even support George W. Bush for re-election in 2004 is but part of a large body of evidence that LCR is far out of the Republican mainstream.

In fact, this might be a good time to remind people why the group call themselves “Log Cabin Republicans” in the first place. The LCR website says, “The name of the organization is a reference to the first Republican President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, who was born in a Log Cabin.  President Lincoln built the Republican Party on the principles of liberty and equality.”

However, there is a double entendre to the name. Homosexual activists also recognize it as an allusion to the fanciful but persistent theory that Abraham Lincoln himself was “gay.” For example, when presidential candidate Bob Dole returned a campaign contribution from the LCR in 1995, one prominent “Log Cabin Republican,” W. Scott Thompson, declared that homosexuals should be welcomed in the party, “given that the founder was gay.”

Supporters of the “Lincoln was gay” theory usually cite the well-documented fact that for several years, he shared a bed with a man named Joshua Speed. Anachronistically, they project 21^st century concepts of “gay” life and behavior back into the 19^th, ignoring the fact that sharing a bed with a same-sex roommate, with no sexual implication, was common at that time.

Proof that Lincoln’s relationship with Speed was innocent comes from Doris Kearns Goodwin’s excellent book, Team of Rivals.

Goodwin is a veritable Massachusetts liberal. She may even support Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court’s far-fetched ruling that permits men to marry men. But she draws the line at suggestions that Lincoln had homosexual feelings for Joshua Speed.

The proof? In December, 1864, President Lincoln nominated Joshua’s older brother James Speed for Attorney General of the U.S. In a letter to the Senate formally naming the elder Speed, Lincoln said he knew the Kentuckian, but not as well as Joshua Speed “with whom I shared a bed in Springfield for several years.”

If there were anything remotely sexual in that comment, Lincoln would hardly have been likely to tell all his fiercest political opponents about it. The Senate Judiciary Committee was then, as it is now, a hotbed of partisan rivalries.

Sen. John Cornyn should not have agreed to help the Log Cabiners with a fund-raiser in any event. But if he knew his Lincoln better, he would be offended at the group’s sly innuendo about the Great Emancipator.

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