Is Harper Lee A Lesbian??????? Does It Matter???????

                                      What in the world is making me think about this right now, girls?????  Well, Christmas is coming, faster than we know, and that always makes me think of my favorite piece of narrative prose for that season, "A Christmas Memory," by Truman Capote.  I defy anyone to arrive at the last sentence dry eyed.

                                          And, of course, when Truman's name comes up, so, inevitably, does Harper Lee.  Many of us had some idea about Capote being the inspiration for Dill Harris in Lee's classic, "To Kill A Mockingbird," but, especially after the two films (one with Philip Seymour Hoffman, the other with Toby Jones, where Lee was played, respectively, by Catherine Keener and Sandra Bullock!!!!) she has become inextricably linked with him.

                                            We know, of course, that Capote was gay; he never denied it, he flaunted it to the max, and he was a role model of sorts for many of my age group--and especially yours truly!!!!!!!!!

                                               But Harper Lee's fascination, apart from the brilliance of her novel, and the film that was made of it 50 years ago, has been her mysteriousness--those two questions surrounding her, which only she can honestly answer--and she ain't talking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                   The first is--why did she write only one book?????????  Well, for starters she is not the only one. Another Southern born lady, Margaret Mitchell, wrote only one novel, that, like 'Mockingbird',. became iconic--"Gone With The Wind."  If you read into Mitchell's life, you can glean why she never wrote another book; and while the two are certainly not alike, some of those issues are bound to resonate, to a degree, where Lee is concerned. In other words, it is easier to fathom why this is so.

                                                      But Harper Lee being a lesbian????????  It seems too many people seem to care about this.  And too many people base this on the tomboyishness of Scout in the book, and that Harper herself never married.  Does this make her a lesbian??????  Does this make anyone a lesbian???????

                                                         Not really.  But it seems social factions want to claim Lee's lesbianism for their own.  The Gay community, obviously, so they can say one of their own wrote one of the twentieth century's best and most important works of fiction; the anti-gays, who would take umbrage that one of distinctly different orientation could write such a book at all.

                                                          Silly children, all!  Confine your bickering to the schoolyard. Like Scout did,when she went after Cecil Jacobs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                            Harper Lee a lesbian?????????  Who cares, darlings??????????
What matters is she wrote a damn fine book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!