Although it is hard to "out" people after their deaths, there is much evidence to believe that Eleanor Roosevelt was bisexual or lesbian. The First Lady, wife to FDR, was known as "First Lady to the World" and had a long-standing relationship with another woman.

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt ( October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international author, speaker, politician, and activist for the New Deal coalition. She worked to enhance the status of working women, although she opposed the Equal Rights Amendment because she believed it would adversely affect women.


According to Lillian Faderman, author of To Believe in Women, she had a long term relationship with journalist Lorena Hickok. The two shared intimate love letters, which makes it clear that if not physical lovers, they were at the very least, very close and intimate friends. Eleanor Roosevelt penned these words to her beloved, "Funny, everything I do my thoughts fly to you. Never are you out of my heart."

Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickok's relationship has been documented in letters the two shared. Eleanor Roosevelt called Lorena Hickok "Hick." Here is a letter Eleanor penned to Hick on March 7, 1933:

"Hick darling,
All day I've thought of you & another birthday I will be with you, & yet tonite you sounded so far away & formal. Oh! I want to put my arms around you. I ache to hold you close. Your ring is a great comfort to me. I look at it and think she does love me, or I wouldn't be wearing it."

In another letter, date unknown, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote:
I wish I could lie down beside you tonight & take you in my arms.

Unfortunately, many of the letters between these two women were destroyed by family members who wished to keep their relationship a secret. Photographs were edited to remove "Hick" from them. And even Lorena Hickok herself burned some of the letters Eleanor Roosevelt sent to her.

Tags: Famous Lesbians Eleanor Roosevelt