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Chapter
8
Sample Page
Our
own role models
Most everyone needs a role model, someone they can look
up to who has similar traits, someone who has survived the
tough times and stands as a symbol of our culture. When
I started doing the research for this chapter I was surprised
because there are many famous gay people throughout history,
but very few people realized or admitted it. Because of
the time periods some lived in, many of the people listed
in this chapter were not “out,” but their deep
involvement and love of one dear friend of the same sex
led biographers to speculate that they were indeed lesbian
or gay.
The people included in this chapter are just a few of the
thousands of gay women and men who have paved the way for
the rest of us. If anyone is offended because their distant
closeted relatives are included in this section, please
accept my apologies in advance. I wish to not hurt anyone,
just bring a little pride to noteworthy people whose love
may have never been recognized before.
Famous lesbians then and now
Jane Addams, an author who was publicly out in the
1880s, and the first woman president of the National Conference
of Social Work, was born in Cedarville, Illinois in 1860.
She attended Rockland College and after graduation went
to the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia. She
traveled in Europe with a close companion, Ellen Gates Starr.
The two founded the Hull House, a place where young social
workers could be trained. Hull House grew into a campus
with thirteen buildings that featured college classes; training
in music, art and theatre; and work training including a
children’s nursery, playgrounds, and a large community
kitchen. Jane fell in love with Mary Rozet Smith and the
two bought a house and were together for forty years. When
they traveled together they always requested a single bed
instead of the appropriate double beds for two women.
Susan B. Anthony, cofounder of the Women’s Rights
movement, was born in 1820. Susan B. Anthony was one of
the first leaders for the rights of women in regards to
owning, managing or inheriting property, and having custody
of their children. In 1851 she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
another women’s rights campaigner. The two had a personal
and political partnership for fifty years, which Susan called
“a natural union of head and heart.” It is unknown
if the married Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony had
a physical relationship, but their political vision, loyalty
to the cause and one another, and their daring actions made
them one of the greatest couples of the nineteenth century.
In 1868 Susan met Anna Dickinson, and it is said that the
two had a passionate relationship. In 1872 Susan registered
and voted illegally in Rochester, New York. She was arrested
and fined, but she refused to pay. The publicity of the
outrage of women helped in the fight for women’s rights,
and in 1906 the so-called “Anthony Amendment,”
which is known today as the nineteenth amendment, granted
women full suffrage.
Katharine Lee Bates, author of the song America
the Beautiful, was born in 1859. As a young woman she
attended Wellesley College. After her graduation she became
a faculty member there. She became friends with a colleague,
Katharine Coman. The two had a relationship for twenty-five
years, and Bates wrote many poems about their love. It is
said that Bates wrote America the Beautiful for Katharine
Coman while traveling cross-country in a Conestoga wagon.
Pretty amazing that this song of national pride was written
by a probable lesbian.
HOW
TO BE A HAPPY LESBIAN, A COMING OUT GUIDE
©2005 by Amazing Dreams Publishing. All rights reserved.
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