4
8
According to a new biography, former President Obama "considered gayness" as a lifestyle choice, but decided to go the more challenging heterosexual path instead.
The biography, Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama, was written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, American historian, author and New York Times and Washington Post contributor David Garrow and is set for release on May 9. Garrow is known best for his work on Martin Luther King Jr.
The bio talks about a relationship Obama had with an assistant professor at Occidental College, who was openly gay.
"Goldyn made a huge impact on Barry Obama," writes Garrow, according to The Daily Caller. "Almost a quarter century later, asked about his understanding of gay issues, Obama enthusiastically said, 'my favorite professor my first year in college was one of the first openly gay people that I knew…He was a terrific guy' with whom Obama developed a 'friendship beyond the classroom.'"
"Three years later, Obama wrote somewhat elusively to his first intimate girlfriend that he had thought about and considered gayness, but ultimately had decided that a same-sex relationship would be less challenging and demanding than developing one with the opposite sex," he says. "But there is no doubting that Goldyn gave eighteen-year-old Barry a vastly more positive and uplifting image of gay identity and self-confidence than he had known in Honolulu."