While some are currently wondering if we could soon end up with the first gay Vice President, others are busy speculating on whether or not we've already had a gay President! And a recent tweet about JKF's rumored secret queer past has everyone cracking open their gay history book again.
You might be familiar with hearsay around Abraham Lincoln's sexuality and his relationship with his head bodyguard, David Derickson. This theory entered the greater realm of cultural discourse in 2005 after C.A. Tripp published the bookThe Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln which posits exactly that. Fun fact: the belief that Lincoln was gay and lovers with Derickson is where the term "Log Cabin Republican" comes from.
There has also been nonacademic speculation about Dwight D. Eisenhower's sexuality, but almost entirely stems from a photo of him that went viral on X (formerly Twitter). Eisenhower wasn't queer — he just knew how to serve in front of the camera. And even if he was gay, he still signed Executive Order 10450, the culmination of the Lavendar Scare. EO 10450 was used to fire 7,000-10,000 LGBTQ employees from the federal government. Being able to smize doesn't make you queer, and it certainly doesn't make you a queer icon. The edits were funny though, I'll give you that.
But back to the question circulating on social media today: Was John F. Kennedy bisexual? Like Lincoln, this rumor has some ground to stand on. It started with a tweet about JFK, alluding to his supposed bisexuality and commenting on him for being a notably horny Commander in Chief with the caption "i'm not joking btw."
The tweet included the following exerpt:
Quirk claims Billings would later confide in him that his relationship with Kennedy was sexual, to a point, and "included oral sex, with Jack always on the receiving end."
Their arrangement, Quirk says, "enabled Jack to sustain his self-delusion that straight men who received oral sex from other males were really only straights looking for sexual release," and, "Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower adorer."
Although Joe Kennedy, the family patriarch, was reportedly suspicious of Billings' close relationship with his son, the Kennedy family welcomed Billings into their exclusive family circle.
At the time of writing, this post had 5 million views — but how much of it is true?
Here are things that are all factual: that photo is of Jack Kennedy and his long time close friend and confidante, Kirk Lemoyne "Lem" Billings. The two were incredibly close, having known each other since in high school. It was common for Billings to be invited on vacations with the Kennedy family when they were boys. They were so close that Ted Kennedy, Jack's younger brother by about a decade, said he didn't realize that Billings wasn't just another one of his older brothers until the age of 3.
Billings was also gay, and at least somewhat open about his sexuality, which was meaningful at a time when it was still illegal to be gay. Historian Steve M. Gillon, author of the book The Kennedy Assassination — 24 Hours After and host of the History Channel podcast of the same name, spoke about their relationship with People. He told them, "The very fact that these men were friends reveals a hidden dimension of JFK’s character," Gillon told the publicaiton. "At a time when homosexuality was taboo, Kennedy accepted and loved Billings who he knew was gay. With JFK’s death Billings lost a friend and a soulmate. He never recovered.” That too is sadly also true.
Fellas, is it gay to vacation in Palm Beach with your bestie?
Courtesy John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, Kennedy Family Collection, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
The quote in the viral tweet is also very real. It's from a 2017 interview with Jerry Oppenheimer, best-selling author of many books including two on the Kennedys, in which he brings up a conversation with Lawrence J. Quirk, author of The Kennedys in Hollywood. While doing research for the book, Quirk was able to meet with and interview Billings, who revealed to him the sometimes sexual nature of their relationship. He said that this included him performing oral sex on Jack. This was never reciprocated, with JFK exclusively receiving blow jobs but never giving any.
It's also true that Kennedy was no stranger to extramarital affairs. His most infamous affair of course being his alleged tryst with Marilyn Monroe. Throughout his lifetime, sex reportely remained JFK's main vice. In 1961, he once told the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan that if he didn't have sex every three days, he would get a migraine.
Knowing that, here's a rapid fire round of things that are true: On a different day, he mentioned to a US ambassador, "I can't get to sleep unless I've had a lay." JFK was in the Navy for 4 years so he was either exaggerating, had a lot of migraines, or, ya know. We kid, we kid.
President John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings in the White House, 1962
Courtesy Robert Knudsen, White House Photographs, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston
So was JFK bisexual? In his eyes, almost certainly not. After his conversation with Billings, as Quirk asserts that the two men's relationship, "enabled Jack to sustain his self-delusion that straight men who received oral sex from other males were really only straights looking for sexual release.”
Looking to the past and finding out that Kennedy allegedly had sexual encounters with men does not resurrect him as some LGBTQ trailblazer. But it does serve as a good reminder that queer people have always been here, there, and everywhere, even it seems, in the White House.
Kennedy and Billings on the beach in Florida, 1936
Courtesy John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, Kennedy Family Collection, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
