'I make love to men daily, but...': Barack Obama in letters to girlfriend in 1982

Barack Obama, former President of the United States, recently found himself in the spotlight after his 40-year-old love letters to an ex-girlfriend caught the attention of the public. The former US President’s private thoughts about his sexuality is creating a stir after the letters written by him in 1982, when he was just 21 years old, surfaced following an interview of his biographer David Garrow who claimed to have obtained them from his former girlfriends. 

Talking about his “androgynous mind”, Obama, in one of the letters written to Alex McNear in November 1982, revealed that “he makes love to men daily, but in the imagination”, reported The New York Post. 

Admitting to having a daily connection with men, but only in his imagination, Obama in his wrote, “In regard to homosexuality, 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.” 

“My mind is androgynous to a great extent and I hope to make it more so until I can think in terms of people, not women as opposed to men. But, in returning to the body, I see that I have been made a man, and physically in life, I choose to accept that contingency,” he added in his letter. 

Alex sold Obama’s letters

As per the New York Post, Emroy University is in possession of these letters as Obama’s ex-girlfriend Alex sold them. Garrow’s friend Harvey Klehr transcribed the paragraphs for the author and provided the redacted portion of the letters to him. 

Alex McNear, who dated Obama in 1982 during his year at Occidental College in Los Angeles. 

Obama, who is a father of two daughters, married Michelle in 1992. Throughout his political career, Obama has been a strong proponent of gay rights. In several interviews, Obama has said homosexuality is not a choice, but the result of people being born with a 'certain make-up'.