“Lavender Men” Brings Abraham Lincoln’s Hidden Affairs With Men To Life This May
Following our coverage of last year’s eye-opening documentary about Abraham Lincoln’s romantic life, a fresh theatrical take on his rumoured male relationships arrives next month.
A Presidential Bedroom We Never Learned About in School
Lavender Men brings a cheeky vision of American history to cinemas on May 2. This new film takes the whispers started by Lover Of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln and transforms them into a creative celebration of what might have been.
Director Lovell Holder turns Roger Q Mason’s 2022 stage play into a cinematic daydream about Lincoln’s supposed gay affairs. The story follows Taffeta, a theatrical stage manager whose wild imagination reconstructs Lincoln’s personal life with a decidedly queer twist.
“I became acquainted with Lavender Men when our genius writer/performer Roger Q Mason, one of my dearest friends since we were teenagers, shared an early draft of their original play in 2019,” Holder tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I never imagined in 2025 we’d officially release the feature film adaptation.”
Not Your History Teacher’s Lincoln
Where last year’s documentary gathered scholars to debate Lincoln’s sexuality, Lavender Men skips straight to the fun part, showing us what those private moments might have looked like.
Mason, who plays Taffeta, created this story as a personal response to those stuffy historical debates. The result? A film that asks “what if?” instead of “did he really?”
The movie arrives as more people question what we know about Lincoln. Last fall, Lover Of Men presented evidence that Lincoln shared beds with several men, including a four-year arrangement with Joshua Speed that sent Lincoln into depression when it ended.
When History Gets a Makeover
The Hollywood Reporter notes that Lover Of Men faced predictable backlash from Elon Musk and conservative voices. Lavender Men seems ready for those critics with its playful approach.
Mason hopes the film will “serve as a rallying cry, a fountain of joy, and a grounding of purpose for the LGBTQIA+ movement in the US and abroad at a time when we need stories which affirm, empower and embolden us more than ever.”
Lavender Men opens May 2 in select theaters in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and New York City. The cast includes Pete Ploszek and Alex Esola alongside Mason.
For anyone who enjoyed our previous stories about Lincoln’s complex romantic life, this film offers something new and fresh. Rather than arguing about what Lincoln did or didn’t do behind closed doors, it invites us to enjoy the possibilities.
At DNA, we see this film as exactly the kind of creative reimagining that makes history feel alive and relevant.
