Was Abraham Lincoln gay?

Well, the book is finally out. I'll have to read it myself, I guess. But casually using the word "gay" and "homosexual" to describe a mode of behavior or pathology that didn't exist in the mid nineteenth century is reductive. Even more reductive is the banal assertion by Jean Baker in today's NYT story:

Ms. Baker said that his outsider status would explain his independence and his ability to take anti-Establishment positions like the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation. As a homosexual, she said, "he would be on the margins of tradition."

That Lincoln may have had same-sex escapades as a young man is likely: most young men, then and now, did too. But the eagerness by homosexual activists (like Larry Kramer) to turn this this theorizing into a lament for what the Republican party has become strikes this homosexual as overheated. Kramer's comment has to be read to be believed.