President Jimmy Carter's recent claim on Big Think that America is in fact ready to elect a gay Commander-in-Chief sometime "in the near future" created quite the media stir. However, as political commentator Andrew Sullivan points out, America may very well have already had a gay president — or two. Historians have long speculated that Abraham Lincoln and his bedfellow of four years, Joshua Speed, were more than just friends. And Aaron V. Burr openly referred to James Buchanan—the only President to remain a life-long bachelor—and his roommate of fifteen years, Alabama Senator William Rufus King, as "Buchanan and his wife."
So is America truly willing to look beyond sexuality at the voting booth? If political consultant and presidential hopeful Fred Karger has his way, we may find out in the 2012 election. As part of our latest series, A Gay White House?, Fred Karger sat down with Big Think to talk candidly about his chances of becoming the 45th President of the United States. Karger, who plans to run as an "Independent Republican," says there's nothing contradictory about being gay and Republican, despite the unfortunate reality that many leaders of the Republican Party have led efforts against gay marriage. "I am trying to bring the Republican Party back to its roots of Lincoln and Roosevelt," says Karger. "The government should stay out of our lives, and that's a Republican philosophy."
Watch the video here:
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