Famous Historical Personalities Who We Didn’t Know Identified as LGBTQ

This article was originally published on travellergazette.com

Throughout history, numerous iconic figures, potentially including those you studied in school, have identified as LGBTQ. This diversity spans authors, actors, royals, and politicians, including a US President, regardless of societal norms or legal constraints of their times. During Hollywood’s Golden Era, studio bosses manipulated stars’ lives for better ratings, arranging fake marriages and hiding truths. Stars led double lives, their true identities only emerging after death. Discover the icons who harbored secret lives…

Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt, a highly influential First Lady, faced a complex personal life. She endured her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s affair with his secretary in the 1920s, staying together for public image despite the marriage’s emotional toll.

The discovery of the affair through letters led Eleanor to form a close relationship with Lorena Hickok, a forthright reporter. Their deep connection, evidenced by thousands of letters, hints at a profound love story, challenging norms and sparking historical intrigue.

Jane Addams

Jane Addams, a pivotal figure in social activism and suffrage, is recognized today for her same-sex relationships. Alongside Ellen Starr, also a social activist, she co-founded the immigrant-serving Hull House in Chicago, marking the start of her known relationships.

Following her separation from Starr, Addams entered a significant relationship with philanthropist Mary Rozet Smith. They cohabited, openly declaring themselves as married to inquirers. Their bond, filled with letters during separations, endured until Smith’s death in 1934.

Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas

Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas’s romance is iconic in American literature, starting in 1907 in Paris. They became cultural magnets, attracting luminaries like Hemingway and Picasso. Their shared life of travel and literary salons spanned the 1920s and 1930s.

With WWII’s onset, Stein and Toklas retreated to a French mountain house. Their enduring partnership lasted until Toklas’s demise in 1946. Despite Toklas leaving her estate to Stein, legal non-recognition left Stein in financial hardship.

James Dean

Throughout James Dean’s career, his sexuality sparked debates, intensified by rumors of male relationships. Despite massive female and male admiration, Dean intriguingly never outright denied these speculations, adding to his enigmatic aura.

Dean’s ambiguous comment on his sexuality fueled rumors, especially after his tragic death. While there’s no concrete evidence, the curiosity surrounding his sexual orientation remains, though it wouldn’t shock today’s society as it might have back then.