Was James Buchanan our first gay President?

Particularly when homosexuality is as American as apple pie. The 15th president of the United States, James Buchanan, almost certainly was gay. Finally, prize-winning historian James W. Loewen, author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me," has outed President James Buchanan, who served as chief executive during tumultuous events on the eve of the Civil War, and had more pre-White House domestic and international expertise than all of the current crop of presidential wannabes put together. In Prof. Loewen's newest book, "Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong," the scholar asserts that Buchanan's long-time living companion, William Rufus King, was referred to as "Aunt Fancy" by that era's Beltway crowd. Apparently, Buchanan's sexual orientation was widely rumored around Washington, to the point that King was called "Mrs. Buchanan."

President James Buchanan was, as they say, a life-long bachelor. That, of course, is code. As usual, the truth is cloaked in historical distortion. You must read between the lines, and connect the dots. "As a young man," writes "Historic Traveler's" Lisa Manhart, Buchanan "committed an unspecified indiscretion that angered his intended bride, and she broke off their engagement. When she died of an illness a few months later, her family forbade him to attend her funeral. Buchanan was devastated, and he disappeared for a time. In the absence of a Mrs. Buchanan, his niece Harriet Lane served as his hostess ... often entertaining guests by playing the piano. When Buchanan moved into the White House as president in 1857, she assumed the social duties of first lady."

While Secretary of State in 1848, James Buchanan had purchased Wheatland, his 22-acre country estate in Lancaster, Penn., attracted to the "privacy, quiet, and beauty of its rural beauty," Manhart notes, and there, he would eventually lead "the life of a country gentleman." The Pennsylvania native was born April 23, 1791, second of 11 children. After graduating from Dickinson College in Carlisle at age 18, Buchanan studied law in Lancaster, and plunged into local politics. Voters elected him state representative in 1814, and he served two terms in the new capital of Harrisburg. Buchanan took his next step up the political ladder in 1820 when he was elected to the first of four terms in the House of Representatives as a Federalist and then, as the Federalist party disintegrated, a fifth term as a Democrat in 1828. President Andrew Jackson appointed him as minister to Russia, where he served in 1832 and 1833. In December of 1833 he was elected to the Senate, where he served until he was appointed Secretary of State under President James K. Polk in 1845.