Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok - 2 Keys to Unlock Their Hidden Love Story in the TikTok Video

When I was a kid, I loved studying the Al Hirschfeld drawings of Broadway celebrities for the hidden "Nina"s - the number by his signature let you know how many times he'd tucked his daughter's name in the line drawings that so artfully captured the personalities of these actors.

With a nod of appreciation to Hirschfeld, I've tucked two keys into this week's TikTokVideo that's all about celebrating the love between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok. Watch for the keys, and then scroll below to unlock the hidden stories behind each...

@leewind Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok! ##queerhistoryiseverywhere ##queer ##historybuff ##lesbian ##bisexual ##lgbt ##pride ##love ##gaypride ##lgbtpride ##lgbtq
♬ Physical - Dua Lipa

The first key is the ring:

Lorena gave Eleanor a diamond and sapphire ring as a gift for Christmas in 1932. In a letter to Lorena from the White House on March 7, 1933, Eleanor wrote:

"Your ring is a great comfort. I look at it & think she does love me, or I wouldn't be wearing it!"

The second key is "Mrs. Doaks":

Mrs. Doaks is the codename both Eleanor and Lorena had come up with for Eleanor—if she were not the First Lady of the United States, not married to the President, not world-famous. If she were just Eleanor, and Lorena was just Lorena, and they could be together without the external world getting in their way.

Hope you enjoyed playing along!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you. Stay safe,
Lee

Source for the stories behind both keys: Roger Streitmatter, Ed., Empty Without You: The Intimate Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok (New York: The Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 1998), 20, footnote 17, and 119-222.

"When Lesbians Led the Women’s Suffrage Movement" - A Fascinating Article by Anya Jabour at The Conversation

When Lesbians Led the Women's Suffrage Movement

I knew about Jane Addams (and her life-long relationship with Mary Roset Smith), but the loving-other-women history of Sophonisba Breckinridge (whose "intimate relationship with Edith Abbott, dean of the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration, helped her pioneer the social work profession and promote social welfare policy") and Anna Howard Shaw (who "relied on her companion and secretary, Lucy E. Anthony – suffrage pioneer Susan B. Anthony’s niece") were new to me.

And they shouldn't be.

We should be teaching this history in schools!

At the 1911 meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), the membership elected Jane Addams as first vice president and Sophonisba Breckinridge as second vice president.

The new officers joined a leadership team headed by Anna Howard Shaw, an ordained minister who served as NAWSA’s president from 1904 to 1915.

For the next year, women who loved other women held the top three positions in the nation’s largest feminist organization.

Further, Anya writes,

My research suggests that the personal lives of these suffrage leaders shaped their political agendas. Rather than emphasizing differences of gender, race, ethnicity and class, they advanced equal rights for all Americans.

I'm delighted to learn about them now.

Go read the full piece, and if you're intrigued, dig further. (The article's author just published a biography of Sophonisba Breckinridge.)

There's so much of our queer history to discover!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee

P.S. Shout-out to my friend Stuart who shared a reprint of this article on Towelroad me! 
I love learning about our LGBTQ history - read something that surprises you? Let me know, and I'll help spread the word!

Crowdsourcing Amazing LGBTQ History - The Baburnama, Kuan Yin, and...? #QueerHistoryIsEverywhere

As I speak about LGBTQ history, and how it didn't all start with Stonewall, I've had this amazing thing happen again and again.

I'll be talking about how the facade of history, as it is taught in our culture, would have us believe that everyone important in history was a rich, white, able-bodied, cis-gendered, hetero man from Europe—and that's just not true.

How there were poor people, and people of color, and disabled people, and gender non-conforming people, and Queer people from all over the world and as far back as we can go in history, who changed our world!

How every example we find of men who loved men, and women who loved women, and people who lived outside gender boundaries cracks that false facade and lets some rainbow light through.

And afterwards, while signing my Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill novel for them, or in an excited conversation, or in an email, they'll tell me about a piece of hidden LGBTQ history that they know.

Have I heard about Babur, the Prince and Emperor, who wrote in his autobiography (the first autobiography ever in Islamic literature) about his teenage love for another boy?

I hadn't, and I got the Baburnama from the library - it's amazing and true and romantic... and that story is going to be in my upcoming book, coming out from Zest/Lerner publishing, The Queer History Project: No Way, They Were Gay? LGBTQ People Across Time and Around Our World.

Have I heard about Kuan Yin, the Chinese bodhisattva (someone who delays their own ascension to be a Buddah to work to relieve the suffering of others), who is a Trans icon?

I hadn't, but I'm reading up on them now!

In short, I'm collecting these stories - about people, and cultures, and legends - and I'd love to hear from you. Whether you think I've heard of them or not, please reach out and tell me about the LGBTQAI+ history you know. About the men who loved men, women who loved women, people who lived outside gender boundaries, cultures that saw—and see—gender differently than we do today, and myths and legends and gods and goddesses that are part of our Queer heritage.

So let me know - in comments, via email, or on social media - and if you have a source to share, that's even better! I'll share it all, and if it ends up in a book, I will of course thank you!

You can also use the hashtag #QueerHistoryIsEverywhere
Because it is.

And together, we can tear down that wall - that false facade of history - and let all the amazing rainbow light of history shine through!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee

"Making Gay History" Podcast - my new podcast obsession

Author and historian Eric Marcus conducted over a hundred audio interviews with key figures in the LGBTQ movement. He used portions of those interviews in his books, and now he's created a podcast series called Making Gay History, where we get to hear these icons in their own voices.

We get to hear Jeanne & her son Morty Manford. Jeanne talks about starting PFLAG, and about what happened when she marched with her gay son in the gay pride parade, holding a sign that proclaimed her love and pride in him.

We get to hear Dr. Evelyn Hooker, telling us about her gay friend Sam, and how Sam urged her to take on the study of healthy gay men that would eventually lead to a complete shift in how being Gay or Lesbian was understood.

We get to hear Sylvia Rivera (the transgender icon) tell us about being at Stonewall.

It's a treasure trove! We're only six episodes in and I'm already obsessed with how amazing it is to hear these people speak through time.

Go listen - Eric and his team have done a great job with this podcast!

Sophia Parnok! Day 9 of our Celebration of Russian LGBTQ Pride: An Olympic Counter-Programming Event #OlympicShame #RussianPride #CheersToSochi

Sophia Parnok

Sophia Parnok was a poet. She was Russian. And she was a woman who loved other women - a lesbian.

Sophia, referred to in a biography as Russia's Sappho,  "... early on asserted that her own lesbian identity was both innate and potentially positive."

In 1905 (when she was 20) Sophia ran away with an actress to Western Europe.  That was the year she wrote this poem:

Just listen, how amidst inspired dreaming
the soul will suddenly lay bare its secret curves.
Let your thought illuminate them brightly
with creation’s breath in an audacious surge.
You will see, then, how the endless distance
so easily and wondrously removes its haze,
and there upon a lofty pedestal of marble
the depth of worlds feels Beauty’s silent gaze.

"Back in Russia, she briefly married to free herself from her family's influence, then left her husband in 1909 and began supporting herself by writing and translating.

In 1914, she fell in love with the poet Marina Tsvetaeva, and Sophia's first book, Poems (1916) "...included poems addressed to Tsvetaeva that are probably the first obviously lesbian love poems ever written [and published] by a Russian woman.

When she started publishing poems inspired by Sappho (such as The Roses of Pieria (1922) and The Vine (1923), "...critics were more hostile; ultimately, the Soviet literary establishment showed its disapproval by ignoring her."

Though she died in 1933, Sophia's work and impact were rediscovered by Russian readers in the 1990s.

Two more of her poems to enjoy:

I know profoundly well – you’ve shown me everything,
the breathing of the skies, and speech of mighty billows
and twinkling of the stars within the depths of air,
and lightning’s vivid laugh in gloomy quietude
you’ve given me with you in brilliant consonance.

So let that farewell cry, as always, sound above me!
I have a heart so that it can be broken!
I know too well that last, that grievous moment,
when happiness can’t help but be forsaken –
but through the garden joyfully I’ll go!
So what if a new loss lies in my future,
– My heart’s so happy in its secret fever:
love summons me, and I won’t contradict her

and

I see: you’re getting off the streetcar – utterly beloved
a breeze, and in my heart it breathes you’re – utterly beloved
I can’t tear my eyes from you because you’re – utterly beloved!
And however did you come to be so – utterly beloved?
You, she-eagle from Caucasian glaciers, where in heat it’s cold.
You, carrier of a very sweet contagion, who never has a cold.
You, beclouder of your lover’s reason with logic clear and cold.
All five senses reel from your intoxication – utterly beloved!

Sophia being an out, proud lesbian poet in Russia's history? That's something to celebrate!


Quotes above taken from pg. 431 and 432 of "Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia" by Steve Hogan and Lee Hudson. Cited source "Sophia Parnok: The Life and Work of Russia's Sappho" by Diana Lewis Burgin (1994).

The photo of Sophia and more of her poetry, translated by Diana Lewis Burgin, were found here.

***

Add To The Celebration:

Who are the Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Trans and Queer Russians you'd like to celebrate? Tell me your favorites in comments, or by twitter, and on the final day of the Olympics, I'll run a rainbow variety-pack post with everyone's suggestions!

Please Note: Given the situation in Russia, I'm thinking we should keep it to either people who are no longer living in Russia or are historical. I'd hate to create a list that then would be used against people by a repressive, anti-LGBTQ regime.


Having said that, there is a lot of Queer Russian heritage to explore and so many LGBTQ Russians we can celebrate!

***

Bonus: Check out this fun video ad from Norway that pokes fun at Russia's anti-gay laws!

Anna Yevreinova! Day 2 of our Celebration of Russian LGBTQ Pride: An Olympic Counter-Programming Event #OlympicShame #RussianPride

The image of Anna Yevreinova is from this website.

Anna Yevreinova and her life-partner, Maria Feodorova, were a lesbian couple on the Russian literary scene in the 1880s and 1890s.

I learned about Anna and Maria in Simon Karlinsky's excellent chapter, "Russia's Gay Literature and Culture: The Impact of the October Revolution" in "Hidden From History: Reclaiming The Gay & Lesbian Past" edited by Martin Duberman, Martha Vicinus and George Chauncey, Jr. (on page 350 and 351.)

Anna was born in 1884.

She held a law degree from Leipzig University - many sources name her as the first Russian woman to be awarded a law degree from that university.

She and Maria were "highly active" in the feminist movement.

Anna was the founder, publisher and editor of an important literary journal called "The Northern Herald," which, along with Maria, she edited.

How cool that Anna and Maria were a couple in love and in their life's work!


There was a fascinating description of Anna in a footnote of a letter Anton Chekhov wrote Anna on March 10, 1889. The description is by Zinaida Gippius, and it's on page 133 of "Anton Chekhov's Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary":

"Inseparable from her pugdog, her gray hair closely cropped, a maroon velvet jacket thrown over her shoulders, she was constantly in three simultaneous but different kinds of excitement." 

It goes on to explain that Chekhov corresponded with Anna, both about his own submissions to Northern Herald as well as to suggest medical, agricultural and other natural-science experts who could "contribute interesting articles to her journal."

The name of the literary journal Anna published has also been translated as "The Northern Messenger." Here's an image of an 1894 cover:

It's interesting how in the online St. Petersburg Encyclopaedia, they don't use Anna's first name in the description of the journal - just initials, saying

"SEVERNY VESTNIK (Northern Herald), a literary, scientific and political journal, of populist (narodnik) orientation, which appeared in 1885-98 until 1889 under А. М. Evreinova's editorship."

In the list below that of "Persons" associated with the journal, Anna's name is fourth down in a list of 19. There, she's listed as "Evreinova Anna Mikhailovna" - but it does make you feel like they're downplaying the fact that she was a woman in a position of power who helped guide and shape Russian literary culture.

If they're not talking about her being a woman, I doubt her love for Maria is highlighted in Russia, either.

For all Anna and Maria did and were, and for how they inspire us today, their love is something to celebrate!

***

Check out this great artist's portrait of this pioneering Russian Lesbian couple - Anna and Maria - at To Russia With Love. a very cool art and advocacy project to "portray iconic and influential queer figures from Russia's history" and "create conversations" by getting their images of queer Russians out into the world.

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Take Action:

Today, maybe even while you're watching the Olympics with them, talk to friends and family members about what's going on with Russia's anti-gay laws, to where even defending gay people's right to exist is a crime.  Consider using this quote from Gary Shteyngart, interviewed in the February 10, 2014 TIME (on page 64), who said

"What a jerk, by the way, this Putin. It's like he figured out, O.K., you can't go after the Jews anymore, so who're we going to go after now?"

Drawing the parallels between the scapegoating of the LGBTQ community now with Russia's sad and terrible history of scapegoating the Jewish community there is powerful.  It can lead to discussing how politicians manipulate hate (and fear) to keep themselves in power and deflect attention from that which they'd rather the people in their country not notice. (Like a magician, who distracts you so you don't see the slight-of-hand.)

***

Add To The Celebration:

Who are the Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Trans and Queer Russians you'd like to celebrate? Add your favorites in comments, and on the final day of the Olympics, I'll run a rainbow variety-pack post with everyone's suggestions!

Please Note: Given the situation in Russia, I'm thinking we should keep it to either people who are no longer living in Russia or are historical. I'd hate to create a list that then would be used against people by a repressive, anti-LGBTQ regime.

Having said that, there is a lot of Queer Russian heritage to explore and so many LGBTQ Russians we can celebrate!

***

Today's Bonus:

What Google's Home page looked like yesterday, the opening day of the 2014 Winter Olympics

I have to shout-out to Google for their Opening Olympic Day search engine logo which was all Rainbow LGBTQ Pride!  They even added this line from the Olympic Charter:

"The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play." –Olympic Charter

Go, Google! Thanks for Standing UP!