(Image via Special Occasion)

For years, there have been rumblings from historians that the greatest president in the history of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was gay. It's been joked about extensively, and it is hysterically rendered in Cole Escola's hit Broadway play Oh, Mary!, with Conrad Ricamora doing the homo honors as Honest Abe.

And it is a funny idea, a shocking idea, and — if you're struggling with some gay self-loathing or are a straight person with unconscious homophobia — it may even strike you as anachronistic or an example of queer wishful thinking.

But, like, no, really — he was.

That is the premiese of Shaun Peterson's relentlessly researched Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln, a workmanlike yet irresistibly nerdy doc only in theaters from September 6.

Never mind its instantly iconic poster art, this doc is much more driven by no-frills expertise, flaunting sit-downs with nearly 20 experts, including historians with unimpeachable credentials. (One of them, Dr. Lisa Diamond, turns out to have acted in a production of Torch Song Trilogy with me at the University of Chicago 30+ years ago, making her an absolute expert on faggotry.)

What I like most about this doc is that it has absolutely no shame about discussing the obvious, poring over embarrassingly revealing personal letters that should prove to anyone that Lincoln was strictly dickly. I feel many experts are likely to defensively try to pretend that male-male affection in the 1800s was not what it looked like, and while it often wasn't, Lincoln's story is as that of a queer man is all but undeniable, making this a must-see for any LGBTQ+ person looking for a historical hero ... or for our enemies, whose heads are likely to explode within the first three minutes.

It's also an invaluable collection of clips of out historian Jonathan Ned Katz speaking — something of which I can never get enough.

Don't miss this one.