Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill releases this month
by Robin Dorner
Editor in Chief
Author Lee Wind grew up thinking there were no gay people besides him. He thought no one important would have been gay, and he read nothing in history books about famous or historical gay people.
We know this is not true.
Wind claims LGBT+ history has been sanitized under the guise of protecting our youth from learning anything about people who lived outside the “normal” gender boundaries.
With that in mind, Wind wrote Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill, a book he said would’ve changed his life if he could have read it when he was a teen.
“Abraham Lincoln being in love with Joshua Fry Speed is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg,” said Wind. “Imagine if we can shift the cultural conversation so that teens know the story of Lincoln loving Speed.
“That’s the first crack in the false façade of history as it’s taught to young people that everyone important was a cisgender, rich, white, heterosexual male.”
Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill synopsis: Wyatt is fifteen, and nobody in his homophobic small town of Lincolnville, Oregon, knows that he’s gay. Not even his best friend and accidental girlfriend, Mackenzie.
Then he discovers a secret from actual history: Abraham Lincoln was in love with another guy! Since everyone loves Lincoln, Wyatt’s sure that if the world knew about it, they would treat gay people differently and it would solve everything about his life.
So, Wyatt outs Lincoln online, triggering a media firestorm that threatens to destroy everything he cares about—and he has to pretend more than ever that he’s straight. Then he meets Martin, who is openly gay and who just might be the guy Wyatt’s been hoping to find.
The book goes into novelistic detail about one teen’s journey in uncovering facts about Lincoln being gay. When I’m reading about history, I’d rather just have the facts rather than putting it in a novel, but that’s just me.
Wind said there was more evidence which didn’t fit in the novel so he’s working on a non-fiction follow-up titled, The Queer History Project: No Way, They Were Gay?
The book does uncover many truths about Lincoln and his sexuality. For one, Wind includes a plethora of information about Lincoln and Speed, including some of their most intimate letters to one another.
The topic of Lincoln’s sexuality came to greater attention due to a 2005 book The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln. The book described Lincoln as allegedly having a detached relationship with women, in contrast with a close male friend [Speed] he allegedly shared a bed with for many years.
According to the book Lincoln the Unknown, Lincoln chose to spend several months of the year practicing law on a circuit that kept him living separately from his wife.
Therefore, the book Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill is nowhere near the only reference or research into Lincoln’s sexuality, but it is a book teens can relate to and from which they can learn.
Wind desires to share the story and the secret from history that inspired it.
“Share this story with teens today, and I hope it can help empower them to be authentic now.”
Queer as a Five Dollar Bill goes on sale October 2 and can be found on Amazon. Hardcover, $25.99; Paperback), $13.99 or eBook is $6.99. For ages 14 and up.
Copyright The Gayly. 9/28/2018 @ 12:17 p.m. CST.