Talk:Sexuality of James Buchanan

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"Buchanan actually wrote long, intimate letters to King while in the White House."

Didn't King die before Buchanan became President? Or maybe he wrote these letters "to" King as a way of sorting out his own feelings...?

I think your first supposition is correct, that the letters were written while King was alive, and therefore this sentence of the article is incorrect. The same paragraph in the article has other "time line" problems, when it seems to refer to events between Buchanan and King but says that King had been Vice President "earlier." Earlier than what? King died while Vice President, in fact he died less than two months after taking office. So some research on what happened when is definitely called for. 6SJ7 15:41, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Buchanan was a homosexual"

Since the word "homosexual" was not found in any language until the year after Buchanan died, would it not be more accurate to say he was attracted to men? I don't know if the concept of slicing up the population by sexual orientation was even about much until Buchanan was already an elderly man. ♥ «Charles A. L.» 23:14, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sources

• This source [1] fails WP:RS
• Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong is an excellent example of pop-history; whereas the Buchanan article relies primarily upon the work of academicians. Why should this article be any different? Rklawton 22:23, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Agreed. Yet another point that argues for deletion of the article.K. Scott Bailey 22:35, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

If this is going to be a one-source article, then perhaps we should just make the article about the book (or its author) instead. Rklawton 21:05, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] I will attempt a rewrite

I will attempt a rewrite of this article at some point in the near future, basing it solely upon scholarly works, rather than the speculative pop history of Lies Across America. When I have completed it, I would appreciate your help with formatting, Rklawton, as I'm not very adept at formatting references, and linking to other appropriate articles. Would you be amenable to doing this?K. Scott Bailey 00:07, 8 March 2007 (UTC)