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Either way, it’s also almost impossible to know for sure: Buchanan ordered that all his correspondence be destroyed upon his death.

(MORE:  In Gay Marriage Reversal, President Obama Faces Risk on All Sides)

But Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong,notes that — importantly — Buchanan’s rumored sexuality was not a secret at the time.

But "for once Democrats aren't worried about the image [the cover] projects." Obama and Mitt Romney both know that, demographically if not politically, Democrats are winning the culture wars. It’s a concept that many of us have trouble grasping: indeed, one of the reasons Americans have trouble viewing the past as more progressive than today is because of the narrative many high school history books follow, which portrays the United States as a country that started great and is getting better — “chronological ethnocentrism”, as he terms it.

This type of thinking leaves many students to see history as irrelevant: inconsequential events of the distant past that are totally separate from issues we face today.

“He had to discover his black identity and then reconcile it with his white family, just as gays discover their homosexual identity and then have to reconcile it with their heterosexual family," Sullivan writes.

Following news of Obama's endorsement, Sullivan wrote about the significance of the president's announcement.

newsweek first gay president

"Today Obama did more than make a logical step. Supporters of then-President Bill Clinton dubbed him the "first black president" for his work with the African American community. Andrew Sullivan argues that this announcement has been in the making for years. That's the change we believed in."

The media world wondered how Newsweek/The Daily Beast chief Tina Brown, a magazine editor known for her controversial covers, planned to celebrate the historical announcement.

He is the only president to have remained a bachelor throughout his life. He let go of fear," Sullivan wrote. It was an inevitable culmination of three years of work." And President Obama has much in common with the gay community. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

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In 2012, this barely registers as shocking: Even a few years ago, Newsweek proclaiming Obama "the first gay president" would have been "a rainbow-wrapped gift" for any Republican challenger, says Rick Klein at ABC News.

Other magazines also paid tribute to Obama's newly-announced support of same-sex marriage. The New Yorker's upcoming cover features an image of the White House with rainbow-colored columns. He also writes that the President has much in common with the gay community. And if nothing else, this cover promises another week "where the Obama economy was not front and center."

"Obama restarts culture wars on offense"

Gay marriage won't change anyone's vote: Actually, like Romney, "Obama no doubt wishes the same-sex marriage question would fade into the background, so that issues more important to most Americans — say, the economy — could become the focus of campaign 2012," says Brad Knickerbocker at The Christian Science Monitor.

Their relationship was reportedly so close that Andrew Jackson and other contemporaries referred to them as “Miss Nancy” and “Aunt Fancy”.

In one letter to a confidante dated May 13, 1844, Buchanan wrote about his life after King moved to Paris to become the American ambassador to France:

“I am now ‘solitary and alone,’ having no companion in the house with me.

But as Jim Loewen at the History News Networkwould like to remind us, even if Obama were gay, he wouldn’t be the first: more than 150 years before the United States had its first black president, it had its first homosexual commander in chief.

(MORE: Gay Marriage in the Swing States: Where Will Obama’s ‘Evolution’ Matter?)

Loewen is one of several historians who believe that James Buchanan, who served from 1857 to 1861, was in fact our first gay president.

Bottom line: "Whether or not Obama is 'the first gay president' may make little difference come November."

"Is Obama the 'first gay president' as Newsweek proclaims?"

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Newsweek's Next Cover: Obama 'First Gay President'

Four days after President Barack Obama affirmed his support of gay marriage on Good Morning America, the editors at Newsweek are ready to anoint him with a new title, "The First Gay President."

At least, that's what it will say on the cover of magazine's May 21 issue, which is available on iPad today and will be on newsstands Monday.

VIEW: Controversial Magazine Covers

The cover shows a close-up portrait of the president with a rainbow-colored halo over his head, the colors referencing symbols adopted by the LGBT movement.

People have already made up their minds on gay marriage, and Obama isn't winning over those who oppose it.