But was she a lesbian, or did she have a very intense romantic friendship? (I'd use the term 'just', but I don't want to discount the importance of romantic friendships.)
I'm really uncomfortable with the lgbtq community trying to claim same-sex romantic friendships as same-sex romantic relationships because we just don't know. I've had very intense romantic friendships - the language I've used in correspondence to those friends could be taken as what one woman would write to another woman with whom she is in love, but to characterise those relationships as lesbian would be a complete misinterpretation and would, imo, actually be diminishing the value of those relationships in my life.
Of course, if there are things in those letters that would explicitly mark Emily Dickinson as lesbian, then I apologise, but the portions I've read solidly support nothing more than romantic friendship.
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Date: 2010-09-13 07:45 pm (UTC)I'm really uncomfortable with the lgbtq community trying to claim same-sex romantic friendships as same-sex romantic relationships because we just don't know. I've had very intense romantic friendships - the language I've used in correspondence to those friends could be taken as what one woman would write to another woman with whom she is in love, but to characterise those relationships as lesbian would be a complete misinterpretation and would, imo, actually be diminishing the value of those relationships in my life.
Of course, if there are things in those letters that would explicitly mark Emily Dickinson as lesbian, then I apologise, but the portions I've read solidly support nothing more than romantic friendship.