Eleanor Roosevelt Knew People Gossiped She was Gay

Eleanor Roosevelt was a person our daughter first brought to my detailed attention when she did a paper on her in high school.  I knew of the Roosevelts of Hyde Park and have been there several times to visit the homes of Val Kill and Springwood Estate with children and friends.  What began as a fascination became a passion to read every book I could find on this unusual marriage and family.  On the surface as on the surface with us there is an outward appearance of respectability and success because of access to wealth and land but like all of us the family had some dysfunctional relationships and unsavory characters.  Yes it makes for an exciting read.  Overall, like most of us the family is good people with good hearts.

I never tire of reading anything surrounding Eleanor, she developed into an independent woman who dedicated her life to public service and her husband's presidency so she and he could have the greatest effect in change for the common good of all Americans.

In her older years she became less afraid of what people thought about her and even enjoyed the gossip her closest secretaries and friends would tell her.  She was instrumental in writing the International Declaration of Human Rights for the United Nations and she meant it to include every race, religion, sexual orientation, and culture of every human being on the planet.  The UN has survived since its foundation however there are those in government that think it is useless and unnecessary but it endures.  How long?  Time will tell.

One of ER investment was in a furniture company and a school, both owned with gay women.  She allowed the gay women to live in her Val Kill home and she enjoyed conversation, play, and business with them.  One journalist Lorena Hicks, openly gay, travelled with ER to report on her many adventures to the press. There are many who said they were lovers and there is a book of letters between the two of them.

ER was a woman of inclusion of all lifestyles and peaceful governments.  She even laughed at the gossip and mystery of her being gay as if this was important at all. It was not. World peace is much bigger than who is sleeping with whom.  Only radical religious people want to condemn and stop such a small matter. Sounds like people are sticking their nose in other people's business again. Focus people focus!