A decades-old letter written by former President Barack Obama to a college girlfriend has resurfaced, revealing personal reflections about homosexuality, sexual fantasies and his understanding of gender.
The correspondence, written in November 1982 when Obama was 21, became the subject of renewed attention in August 2023 after biographer David Garrow discussed previously redacted portions of the document.
According to the New York Post, Obama wrote to his former girlfriend, Alex McNear, about imagining sexual encounters with men.
“You see, I make love to men daily, but in the imagination,” Obama wrote.
The statement appeared in a broader passage discussing homosexuality and his philosophical views about human existence.
Obama also described his mind as largely androgynous, expressing a desire to think about people without focusing on distinctions between men and women.
“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,” he wrote.
He continued by discussing his physical identity as a man and his willingness to accept it.
The correspondence dates to Obama’s years as a college student, long before his entry into national politics and eventual election to the presidency.
McNear dated Obama while they were attending Occidental College in Los Angeles.
The letter later became part of archival materials associated with the former president’s early life.
Although portions of the correspondence had previously been made available, McNear redacted several paragraphs containing Obama’s reflections about homosexuality.
Those passages eventually attracted the attention of Garrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who examined Obama’s personal history for his biography, Rising Star.
Garrow investigated the missing sections and sought to establish what they contained.
The original letter is held by Emory University, which restricts visitors from photographing or removing the document.
To obtain the previously redacted material, Garrow enlisted the assistance of historian Harvey Klehr.
Klehr reviewed the letter and transcribed the relevant paragraphs by hand before providing the text to Garrow.
The transcription was subsequently shared with the New York Post, which published the passages in August 2023.
Their disclosure prompted renewed discussion about Obama’s private writings and how he explored questions of sexuality during his early adulthood.
However, Garrow cautioned against treating the passages as extraordinary.
“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!” he told the newspaper.
His remarks emphasized that the existence of sexual fantasies does not necessarily establish someone’s sexual orientation or describe their real-life relationships.
Obama’s letter similarly distinguished between his imagination and his physical experiences.
The correspondence does not establish that he engaged in sexual relationships with men.
The former president married Michelle Obama in 1992, and the couple have two daughters.
By the time the previously redacted passages became public, Obama had completed two terms in the White House, serving as president from 2009 to 2017, per the New York Post.
The resurfaced letter provides an unusually personal glimpse into the former president’s thoughts more than four decades earlier.
Its publication also demonstrates how private correspondence from a political figure’s youth can continue attracting public attention long after that individual leaves office.
While the document contains Obama’s own reflections on homosexuality and imagined encounters with men, it does not independently establish his sexual orientation.
The passages remain part of the historical record examined by Garrow and other researchers studying Obama’s early life.
