Vacation Vixen: Rose & Evangeline

On this Fourth of July let me tell you a true tale of American independence. While we may have never had an out gay President of the United States of America, history will show we did indeed have a lesbian First Lady. And, no, don’t get excited – we’re not talking about Eleanor (yet).

No we’re talking about Rose Cleveland, sister of bachelor President Grover Cleveland. Norms dictated since he did not have a wife a close female relative would serve as First Lady. So Rose stepped in for the start of his first term until he found some poor woman to marry him after his first year in office.

Flash forward a couple years and Rose meets Evangeline, 10 years her junior and with an enormous inherited fortune to her name. I know, it sounds too Gentleman Jack-y to be true. But it really all is true American history.

The two women entered into a 30-year “romantic friendship” relationship which, while Evangeline remarried at some point, saw them live together, vacation together, buy property together and engage in a three-decade long love letter marathon together. And we know this thanks to a recently uncovered trove of letters that had been preserved by Evangeline’s caretaker all these years.

The two women are buried in side-by-side graves in Tuscany. Yep, American history is gay as fuck. So have big, old queer birthday, America.