The director and producer of 'Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln' tell The Hollywood Reporter why they set out to examine the former president's romantic relationships.
A scene from 'Lover of Men.'The filmmakers behind Lover of Men, the new documentary examining whether former President Abraham Lincoln may have been gay, are proud of the film that they made, regardless of the trolling from conservative pundits.
Director Shaun Peterson’s feature Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln is now playing in theaters. The movie uses interviews with prominent Lincoln scholars, in addition to never-before-seen photographs and letters, to suggest that the revered politician had romantic relationships with men. The film focuses on four men — including close friend Joshua Speed — with whom Lincoln shared a bed at separate points in his life, according to this research.
“I’ve been researching this for a very long time, since around 2007,” Peterson tells The Hollywood Reporter. “[There was] fluidity that existed throughout human history, before the words and ideas ‘homosexual’ and ‘heterosexual’ were invented around 1870. That’s what really captivated me, is this idea that these binaries are very new. The binaries were used against people, whether it was the psychological community in the early days or the church, and then where we find ourselves today.”
A view of the Lincoln Memorial.
Producer Robert Rosenheck has been creative partners with Peterson for 20 years. Although Rosenheck is a lifelong Lincoln fan, he hadn’t been aware of the conversations surrounding whether the politician was queer until Peterson mentioned his plans for the project, at which point the producer jumped on board.
“I said, ‘We need to make a movie that is not about Abraham Lincoln’s queerness — it’s got to be about something larger,'” Rosenheck recalls. “It tells a universal story. So if you’re a queer person, you see this film, and you experience a catharsis when you realize that America’s greatest president was queer. But if you’re not a queer person, the story is a universal one about tolerance and how we ‘other’ people.”
Rosenheck is aware that social media users have voiced questions regarding why a film should emphasize apparent speculation about someone like Lincoln, who was private with key elements of his personal life. Lincoln had been married to Mary Todd Lincoln for more than two decades at the time of his assassination in 1865.
“We get all kinds of reactions to the film,” the producer says. “Surprisingly, we’ve gotten a lot of people on the left who are skeptical, [and] people on the right who have seen the film and go, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize all that history. That’s fascinating.’ So it’s definitely a conversation starter and a mind-opener to see the film.”
The team behind Lover of Men edited the film with a focus on getting it finished in time for this November’s presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, and in fact, the movie hit theaters just days before Tuesday’s presidential debate. Seeing the project as a rallying cry for Americans to continue to encourage diverse voices and identities, the filmmakers acknowledge that conservative pundits, including Elon Musk, Ben Shapiro and Alex Jones, posted negatives remarks about the movie’s concept prior to its release.
“I would just invite them — and anybody that has questions about the film — to watch the film, give it a chance, look at the evidence and look at the possible message,” says Peterson. “Just go into the film with an open mind because we’re at a time where we need some open minds. We are living history right now, everything that’s going on, and so it’s important to look back at our past in order to inform our future.”
As for how the Lover of Men team feels about such right-wing pundits trolling the movie, Rosenheck says, “We’re thrilled when people like Elon Musk notice the film, and the reason that they notice the film is because it is compelling. This story is provocative. There are very few original stories. There are very few stories with a hook, and this movie has a huge hook.”
