Is Frances Willard lesbian

Answer 1

Willard's role in the Women's Christian Temperance Union and her work for women's suffrage means there is a statue in honor of her in the rotunda room of our U.S. Capitol building. But at the same time, this Christian organization denies that the love Willard had for women throughout her life were "homosexual" since that would be against the Christian Bible.

Here are examples in support of Willard as a lesbian from the book Sisters - The Lives of America's Suffragists, by Jean H. Baker. Specifically at page 147, something Frances Willard wrote about her feelings for Mary Bannister is being quoted:

"I have always loved Mary Bannister-I knew it was my destiny when I first saw her...." And later, a journal entry is quoted from @ September 1861: "Ours is such a Love as no two women ever had for each other, before. It is wild and passionate and all-pervading...." Apparently Mary Bannister married Frances' brother Oliver and maybe didn't quite return Ms. Willard's passion. Later in Willard's life, according to this book at pages 149-150, she found love with Anna Gordon, and still later, with Lady Henry Somerset, whom she referred to as "my beloved Cossie." Frances Willard wrote in her journal that Mrs. Somerset found in her, "a woman she could love & trust after a life of loneliness. She was for me a blessed consummation."

Frances Willard is also noted as a lesbian in To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America by Lillian Faderman, and probably in other materials, also. However, the Women's Christian Temperance Union denies strongly that Willard was a lesbian, basing their denial on the collective knowledge at their archives, they maintain that there is no indication that Miss Willard was a lesbian. Although they acknowledge her love for the women mentioned above, they maintain it was not physical or 'eros' but rather 'filios' as for fellow sisters and brothers. They say that "[s]he was a strong and solid Christian woman who clung steadfastly to the teachings of The Bible which in the thinking of our organization excludes homosexuality and its tendencies."

It should also be noted that with the support of this Christian organization, Ms. Willard's statue stands in the rotunda, contrary to what happened to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who co-wrote "The Women's Bible" and who strongly opposed the church's role in government because she saw how the church demanded the subjugation of women. Apparently, the publication of The Women's Bible led to the end of public recognition for Cady Stanton's contributions to women's suffrage.