Eleanor roosevelt lesbian marriage lorena hickok photo
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The Love Affair Between Eleanor Roosevelt and Journalist Lorena “Hick” Hickok
In this episode of Listen, Ladies, host Maryalice Aymong talks to author Susan Quinn to discuss her fascinating book, Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady. Quinn&#;s immense research highlights Roosevelt&#;s relationship with Lorena Hickok, whom she initially encountered when Hickok was working as a reporter. Their relationship has been somewhat lost to history, but Quinn brings their romance and friendship to life in our interview and in the book. Her text fryst vatten also set to become a TV series.
Below is an excerpt from her interview. To listen to the whole episode, download Listen, Ladies in iTunes.
Listen, Ladies (LL): Eleanor Roosevelt is known as a woman profoundly ahead of her time. She is someone who fundamentally changed the role of First Lady. She tirelessly advocated for human rights and against racism, as well as the most remote causes, like helping people out of pove
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History here sourced from Empty Without You, edited by Roger Streitmatter; Eleanor Roosevelt, Reluctant First Lady, by Lorena Hickok; and Ken Burns&#; The Roosevelts.
Where were you when you first learned of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s queerness? Maybe you first heard a women’s studies professor mention it offhandedly, as if it were the commonest of knowledge, as I did. Maybe you learned it right here on Autostraddle. Maybe you had a super awesome high school history teacher who broke away from the confines of state-sanctioned education and actually acknowledged that not all of U.S. history’s influencers were heterosexual. If that’s the case, I’m jealous. I went to a public high school in Southern Virginia, and even though it was an arts school with a few openly gay teachers, queer history certainly didn’t come up in my social studies classes.
But thanks to some intense Googling after my women’s studies professor blew my mind, I self-taught a crash course in Eleanor Rooseve
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Was Eleanor Roosevelt a Lesbian?
In Bros, which may or may not be the first major gay rom-com, Billy Eichner’s character is working on another big first, opening the first major LGBTQ history museum. As part of that job, he spends much of the film discussing whether various historical figures were gay, including Abraham Lincoln and the ancient Egyptian pairing of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum. (In both of those cases it depends who you ask, and what you mean by “gay.”) Those of us who haven’t been watching The First Lady on Showtime (which is a lot of us) may be surprised to hear Eleanor Roosevelt among these names. In fact, at one point, the movie refers to her outright as “lesbian first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.” She was? In order to get some answers, Slate spoke to Susan Quinn, author of Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Heather Schwedel: I think it will be news to some people to hear the mo