With casual aplomb David Greenberg destroys C.A. Tripp's case for a bisexual Lincoln. More importantly, he questions why critics who should know better (Gore Vidal only the most notable) have accepted Tripp's mixture of speculation and reductiveness so willingly (I haven't even mentioned how awful most of Tripp's prose is. If you're going to write about Lincoln, your prose should at least attempt to rival one of our greatest stylists.).

It's possible that they don't want to align themselves with a position that could seem naive or, worse, anti-gay. Plenty of Lincoln scholars have stuffily refused even to entertain the possibility of Lincoln's bisexuality, either out of an ingrained homophobia or a misguided reverence that borders on idolatry.