I’ve been thinking about this all day, so I have to share here too:
Why did no one ever tell me Eleanor Roosevelt was queer?
Here’s the article that enlightened me. In which I learned:
- Eleanor had a life partner, Lorena “Hick” Hickok. They first met when Hick covered the future First Lady for the Associated Press on Franklin’s 1932 campaign trail.
- Before that, in the 20ss, Eleanor explored Greenwich Village and “found a chosen family of lesbian political activists there.”
- During that time, Eleanor had a close (nature unknown) relationship with suffragists who were life partners to each other: Nan Cook and Marion Dickerman
- Hick apparently “burned hundreds of the letters after Eleanor’s death because she ‘wasn’t always discreet in her letters'”
This is the kind of women’s history I’m here for.
With Love,
Natalie