American politician Abraham Lincoln was BOTD in 1809. Born in a log cabin in Larue County, Kentucky, he was raised in poverty and largely self-educated, serving as a captain in the Illinois Militia before training as a lawyer. He discovered a taste for politics and a talent for public speaking, serving in the Illinois state legislature before being elected to the House of Representatives in 1847. Angered by the persistence of slavery, he was elected as leader of the New Republican Party, eventually winning the Presidency in 1860. As the Southern Confederate (slave-owning) states attempted to secede, Lincoln led the country into a long and bloody Civil War. In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves to be free. An expert negotiator, he managed rival factions within government to pass the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, formally abolishing slavery. In 1863, he gave one of his most famous speeches, the Gettysburg Address, while opening and dedicating the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. Finally defeating the Confederates in 1865, he was assassinated five days after the ceasefire, while attending the theatre. Now considered the greatest President in American history, he has been deified at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D. C., and appears on the US $5 bill. Lincoln married Mary Todd in 1842, with whom he had four children. Their marriage was loving but turbulent, complicated by the early death of their son Willy and her struggles with mental illness. Lincoln’s sexuality has been extensively debated by biographers and historians, notably his close friendship with Joshua Speed, with whom he frequently shared a bed. Poet Carl Sandburg wrote in his 1926 biography of Lincoln that the friendship had “a streak of lavender, and spots soft as May violets”. Gay historians Gore Vidal, Larry Kramer and Jonathan Ned Katz have argued that Lincoln may have been gay or bisexual, claims that have been furiously denied by conservatives. Lincoln has been portrayed many times in theatre, film and literature, most notably by Daniel Day-Lewis in Steven Spielberg’s 2012 biopic Lincoln. In Cole Escola‘s 2024 play Oh, Mary!, Lincoln is presented as a rampant homosexual hiding behind his marriage to the frazzled Mary, who dreams of being a cabaret singer.