A BIOGRAPHY that claims Abraham Lincoln was homosexual has provoked fierce criticism and prompted complaints that attempts to out historical figures have gone too far. The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln, to be released by Simon & Schuster next month, says the president who won the American civil war and ended slavery had affairs with young men. While gay campaigners have made similar claims in the past, this is likely to strengthen a backlash against the so-called "queer theory" that has been used to claim figures from Adolf Hitler and from Florence Nightingale to Eleanor Roosevelt were all gay.