Bear with me. I have two stories to tell that will intersect when I’m done.

Part 1: Today we visited Wheatland, President James Buchanan’s home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Some historians believe that Buchanan was our first gay president.

Today we visited Wheatland, President James Buchanan’s home.

There was no mention of that speculation on our home tour but a piece by Katherine Cooney for Time, explores that possibility in detail.

Buchanan was the only president who never married. For many years he shared a home with William Rufus King, an Alabama senator. Their relationship was reportedly so close that Andrew Jackson referred to them as “Miss Nancy” and “Aunt Fancy”. When King moved to Paris to become the American ambassador to France, Buchanan wrote of his profound loneliness.

Was President Buchanan gay? His fashion forward hairdo might be an indicator. On the other hand he was opposed to dancing and didn’t allow it in the White House—a contraindication.

Part 2: Wheatland was about a half hour drive from our current RV Park in Hershey. Two and a half hours in the other direction, remembrance ceremonies are being held today at the Flight 93 National Memorial. Passengers aboard that flight are believed to have stormed the cockpit when they learned of the other 9/11 attacks, bringing the plane down in a Pennsylvania field, instead of the hijackers’ intended target—the U.S. Capitol.

One of those thought to have fought back against the terrorists was Mark Bingham. Bingham was gay. I feel compelled to point this out, because today contemporary equivalents of “Miss Nancy” and “Aunt Fancy” are still with us: “Pansy,” “light in the loafers,” and much worse.

I’ve never understood why pansy is used as a homophobic slur. Sure, it’s flashy, but also remarkably hearty and resilient.

Mark Bingham was a hero—not a pansy.