Jfk gay as hell
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He claimed he was rebuffed: according to Pitts, it was Jack’s decency at that moment that caused the pair to become close, and the moment they decided to become roommates. But one particular theory is lowkey one of our favorites—it suggests that JFK might have been more queer than we ever imagined.
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
David Pitts quotes Vidal cruelly calling Billings “a lifelong slave,” “the principal fag at court,” and a “nurse” who helped Jack deal with the pain caused by Addison’s disease.
Indeed, it often seems that Kennedy did treat people who loved him for granted. For example, in Once Upon a Secret (2012), former White House intern Mimi Alford describes a prolonged affair she had with Kennedy, beginning in the summer of 1962 when she was 19 and ending shortly before his assassination on November 22, 1963.
In addition, gay and lesbian people often have reasons for not coming out, or not seeking the liberation of living in queer communities, lives that are worth exploring for what we might learn about queer milieus that do not fit a conventional liberationist narrative.
JFK’s sex life, and his attachments to men, also needs to be better understood for what it reveals about his inner life, and for a moment in United States political history when sex itself was undergoing seismic changes.
Kennedy’s social intimacy with gay and bisexual men, and his comfort around homosexuality, is remarkable at a time when those friendships were stigmatizing and when gay and lesbian people were still prohibited from working on most federal jobs. Kennedy and Billings remained intimate in part by managing Jack’s sex life, his career, and his family, together.
Lem and Jack were insulated by money, and by the reticence of journalists to open closet doors that powerful men, gay and straight, preferred to leave closed.
Like many gay men of his generation, Lem may have been very comfortable with his own sexuality and the privacy of his relationship to Jack. With JFK's death, Billings lost a friend and soulmate." He never recovered, Gillon said.
Our most accurate accounts of JFK’s emotional carelessness are not from Lem, who was loyal to his friend until his death, but from women who later came forward about affairs that now, in the era of #MeToo, sometimes raise harsh questions about whether some of these relationships were abusive. I am sure the good Lord knows that heaven is Jesus and Lem and Jack and Bobby loving one another.”
* Originally published in June 2017, updated in 2022.
There are countless theories about John F.
Kennedy (JFK) that have surfaced since his assassination, ranging from political conspiracies to personal secrets. The two met in 1933 at Choate Rosemary Hall, a prestigious prep school in Connecticut, and quickly became inseparable. And did he personally lend a hand from time to time? One famous shot shows the toddler John, Jr., a man who would also die tragically young, playing peek-a-boo under the desk.
We might even attach the adjectives “exclusive” and “romantic” to this youthful friendship. "At a time when homosexuality was considered taboo, Kennedy welcomed and adored Billings, who he knew was gay. "Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower adorer," Quirk wrote. Having been given special access to the Billings papers by Robert Kennedy, Jr., Pitts was either unable to verify a sexual relationship, or he was unwilling to cite his source.
He says Billings even had his own room in the White House, much to Jackie Kennedy’s chagrin.
Billings made his desire known while the two were still at school by writing Kennedy a love note on a piece of toilet paper.
A startled Kennedy responded to the note by saying, “Please don't write to me on toilet paper anymore.
He claimed he had no idea who the Kennedys were, but they wanted to meet Williams, and Vidal produced him. Some of his partners saw the escape from monogamy as liberating too, understanding their romps with the President as special and carefree episodes that they were happy to flaunt. By the time he became president, however, that revolution had been launched: the birth control pill, developed in the 1950s, became widely available in the 1960s and, more importantly, in 1964, Life magazine would publish a major photo essay about gay men’s bars in San Francisco.
Between 1933 and 1935, “The bond between Jack and Lem grew so tight,” journalist David Pitts wrote in Jack and Lem (2008), “that they really had no need for friendships with other boys.”
Lem never really left Jack’s orbit after boarding school. I’m not that kind of boy.”
But according to some sources, his stance on the situation may have softened over time.
I have no evidence one way or another, but I would discount [any sexual activity.]”
Lem Billings died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on May 28, 1981, at the age of 65.
Bobby Kennedy Jr. gave the eulogy.
“I’m sure he's already organizing everything in heaven so it will be completely ready for us – with just the right Early American furniture, the right curtains, the right rugs, the right paintings, and everything ready for a big, big party.
“Yesterday was Jack's birthday.
Credit: JFK Presidential Library and Museum
After Kennedy was elected president, Billings was a constant presence at the White House, and advisers were concerned about possible political repercussions.