'I Make Love to Men... in the Imagination': Decades-Old Obama Letter Reflects on Gender, Sexuality

A letter written by Barack Obama to his girlfriend when he was 21 – portions of which have now been published for the first time – reflects on the "androgynous" quality of the human mind and imagination.

"In regard to homosexuality," the then-future president wrote to Alex McNear in late 1982, "I must say that I believe this is an attempt to remove oneself from the present, a refusal perhaps to perpetuate the endless farce of earthly life.

"You see, I make love to men daily, but in the imagination," Obama added.

"McNear, who dated Obama during his year at Occidental College," the New York Post reported "redacted" parts of that letter.

But "Pulitzer Prize-winning historian [David] Garrow hunted down" the full content of the letter, the Post added, "and included [it] in his tome 'Rising Star,' " a New York Times bestseller of some 1,472 pages that was published in 2017 to critical acclaim.

The letter is now is the property of Emory University, which does not allow the letter to be taken offsite or photographed. But its contents were copied out by a friend of Garrow, the Post detailed. Garrow recently supplied the Post with the letter's previously-unpublished text.

In that same letter, the Post reported, Obama aspired to arriving at a place where he would be able to "think in terms of people, not women as opposed to men" – though he also admitted that, being a straight man, the sexual element was bound to enter into his thinking about gender.

"Today, Barack Obama is a devoted husband to Michelle and father of two," wionews reported. "His personal journey includes a transformation in his views on homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

"Initially opposing same-sex marriage, his stance evolved during his presidential tenure, culminating in his support for its federal legalization in 2015," wionews added.

A fact sheet from the Obama White House Archives took note of the 44th President's accomplishments in the area of promoting full legal equality for LGBTQ+ Americans, including the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (which denied LGBTQ+ servicemembers the integrity of serving openly, under penalty of dishonorable discharge from the military,) executive orders and federal guidance around issues of discrimination, and the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, "which extends the coverage of Federal hate crimes law to include attacks based on the victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity."

Garrow noted in an email to the Post that such "androgynous" contemplations are not unusual for young people.

"I'm a historian, not a psychologist, but I think it's 'public record' news that a (vast?) majority of human beings have sexual fantasies!" the article quoted Garrow as saying in his email.

"Obama, a father of two, has been married to his wife, Michelle, since 1992," the Post noted.