Was Barack Obama America’s First Gay President?

Written by David Zimmermann

What’s happening: Former President Barack Obama made headlines last month when an uncovered love letter to one of his ex-girlfriends revealed his secret sexual fantasies with men. In a lengthy interview with Tablet, David Garrow, the historian who penned Obama’s biography titled Rising Star, divulged a once-redacted paragraph of the letter regarding homosexuality.

• What’s in the letter? After his 2017 biography of Obama was published, Garrow discovered that 21-year-old Obama told his then-girlfriend Alex McNear he makes “love to men daily, but in the imagination.” Obama also confessed his “mind is androgynous” while accepting the fact he is a male.

• Zoom in: McNear sold Obama’s letters to Georgia’s Emory University around 2017, though the school never mentioned the controversial paragraphs.

Why it matters: Garrow noted that journalists didn’t do much digging into Obama’s life before, during, or after his presidency. The news media instead took him at face value. According to Garrow, Obama’s Dreams from My Father was “make-believe” designed to make him look like a political star. In essence, Obama fictionalized his past without pushback.

Catch up: For years, conservative personalities have said Obama was gay. Most recently, Tucker Carlson aired Larry Sinclair’s allegations surrounding Obama’s lifestyle before the 2008 election, accusing the Democrat of smoking crack and having gay sex frequently. Dinesh D’Souza and even Obama’s half-brother reported the same, although these claims have been denounced as right-wing conspiracy theories.