Frances Kellor Backs Transgender Candidate!

Yesterday I was in the capital city of the Indian State of Uttarakhand, Dehradun.  To my surprise, in the paper I read that a transgender woman, Ms. Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, is running for Mayor.  I had no idea India was so progressive.  I wondered what Kellor would think.  At very least, Kellor would have no trouble endorsing Ms. Tripathi.

Kellor may or may not agree with Ms. Laxmi's policies or those of her BSP party.  It seems that Ms. Laxmi was a legitimate social justice advocate before launching to fame on the reality television show Big Boss.  And, so the convergence of interests seems likely.

But, I see even more likelihood of Kellor's endorsement coming from her own trajectory.  Kellor symbolizes, in her biography Founding Mother, a transition from a Protestant to a sociological view of America.  She was raised in christian times, rescued from obscure poverty by a nominally Christian pastor, and went on to study secular sociology from America's best. 

Moral judgements appear in Kellor's earlier work.  As her Americanization work continues, nearly all references to morals or even culture disappear.  All can participate in America's democracy and be equally American if they fight for social justice.  As she left Americanization, she moved to fighting for the "international human being."  At this point, culture had disappeared as a factor in her work; She viewed citizenship with a totally sociological lens.

All and all, Kellor did prefer the outsider. She found for immigrant protection and open borders her whole career. In Founding Mother  I tie her concern for outsiders to her own LGBT status. She wanted integration of all without judgement.  So, all other factors being equal, I am sure that Kellor would vote for the outsider, the LGBT advocate, Ms. Laxmi Narayan Tripathi.

Kellor, FDR, and LGBT History

For years I had heard that Eleanor Roosevelt had bisexual tendencies.  But, as I have not researched her, I had no evidence.  Rather, I have been studying Frances Kellor (1873 – 1955) for years who lived the “male” role in a relationship with Mary Dreier (1875   - 1963) for 47 years.

 I knew that Kellor met, because of a revealing photo (see below).  It shows Eleanor greeting Kellor and Mary.  The short Kellor has her arm around Mary in a typical masculine posture of ownership.  These women shared their love for each other in front of Mrs. Roosevelt.

Recently, another photo of Eleanor, Kellor and Mary Dreier came my way.  And it shows an even greater intimacy with he LGBT friends. In this one (see below), Kellor and Mary are in a small boat with FDR, Eleanor and their sons!  They are in the back left.  Kellor has the white tie and Mary has her shirt somewhat open.

I received the photo from a great nephew of Antonia Hatvany (1894 – 1974).  The great nephew had been researching her and was convinced, independent of having learned about Kellor’s orientation, that his great aunt was a lesbian.

This relative’s research led him to the conclusion that his great aunt had moved from the old country (Hungary) due to a lack of acceptance of her sexual orientation. He claimed that the part of New Jersey in which his aunt bought a home was in a community that was known as a haven for LGBT persons.

The aunt is in the back right of the FDR photo, (she has a round hat with a brim).  Kellor and she wrote books together. So we have at least 3 LGBT women on the boat.  We don’t know who the others are, but it is interesting to note that one – like Kellor – is sporting a tie. 

This remarkable photo shows the high level of access that LGBT women had in the FDR administration.  And, FDR’s relaxed demeanor indicates that he himself had no discomfort with LBGT women.  Does Eleanor having her lesbian friends on a boat with the family show that she was bisexual?  No.  But, it does demonstrate the extent to which she included LGBT friends in close circles.  And, that alone is enough to make this photo significant.  

Frances Kellor's Grave

I finally located the grave of my hero, Frances Kellor (1873 – 1952) in Brooklyn’s Greenwood cemetery. As my biography of her, Founding Mother, details, Kellor launched women’s sports, got suffrage on national party platforms, founded the National Urban League, and much more. Visiting her grave was very personal to me because after researching someone for over 5 years, you become close.

 

Arriving at the cemetery, I secured a ride up the hill in a patrol car.  On the way to the site, I told the helpful cemetery worker that I was very curious as to which accomplishments Kellor had listed on her tombstone.  Dropped off, we hunted for her burial site.  I found it first!  Rather, I first found a monument to Theodore Dreier, the father of Kellor’s girlfriend of 47 years, I noted other Dreier family members – then, I found Kellor in the back right of their small family plot. 

An emotional realization – Frances’ relationship with Mary and the Dreier family, not political accomplishments - was how her peers had chosen to remember her.  The tombstone simply listed her name, birth and death years.  But more importantly, her inclusion in the Dreier family plot, and being buried next to her partner of 47 years, Mary Dreier, spoke volumes.  And it moved me to see that Kellor – who was raised by a long dead single mother – had been embraced by her in-laws.

I use the term “in-laws,” self-consciously.  LGBT couples could not get married in their lifetimes.  And, kindly, the cemetery's website lists Dreier as Kellor's spouse. But their burial shows some families accepted forms of same sex relations in the past.  Another political implication of the plot, comes from Father Dreier noting his and his wife’s birth in Germany on the tombstone; it also had a German saying on the back. Kellor ran the Americanization movement which assimilated immigrants from 1906 to 1921.  Thus her family’s pride as immigrants says something about the Americanization movement.

  

But the political implications were not what brought tears to my eyes: they came from being physically near Kellor and Mary.  I imagined her short body and smirking face only feet away.  We had finally really met.  My happiness for Kellor’s having such a loving family, also choked me up; she had not been alone in this world.  RIP to Frances, Mary, and the wonderful Dreier family.  

Frances Kellor Video Series Live !!

The video series introducing Frances Kellor, and presenting the evidence that this LGBT role model was a Founding Mother, is now live. 

You can find the entire series via www.franceskellor.com

Please use these videos in your classrooms.  We need to put this LGBT role model front and center in our curriculum.

Thank you,

John

Frances Kellor Founded Modern America - Part 3

In this part Kellor:

1) Defeats scientific racism,
2) Greets Ellis Island generation
3) Founds the National Urban League

Enjoy!

John K. Press, Ph.D.

Frances Kellor Founded Modern America - Part 2

In this episode Kellor:

1) Launches women's sports
2) Puts suffrage on National party platforms
3) Introduces women's political leadership

Enjoy friends!

John K. Press, Ph.D.
www.franceskellor.com

Frances Kellor Founded Modern America Video Series Introduced

Transgender Pronoun Disclaimer Help

Hello Readers, Colleagues, and Friends,


I am especially asking the LGBT scholarly community to critique the "Note on Pronouns" that will appear on in the final edition of Frances Kellor's biography, Founding Mother.   


Your comments are greatly appreciated.


Thanks in advance,


Here is the text:

A Note on Pronouns

Throughout this text, though transgender, Frances Kellor will be referenced with the feminine pronouns, “she,” “her,” and, “herself.” Kellor was the male persona in her forty-seven year relationship with Mary Dreier, argued publically that women needed to take on more “masculine” characteristics, changed her name from the feminine “Alice” to the more masculine “Frances,” and dressed in men’s clothes.  Within the broad parameters of today’s language, Kellor was transgender. But, the past lives with different terms. In Kellor’s time, sex change operations did not yet exist.  As such, to expect her to even consider becoming anatomically male is anachronistic. In her ongoing focus on gender roles, Kellor called herself “masculine,” but she never called herself “male.” Therefore, throughout this text we shall use feminine pronouns in reference to Kellor.

Kellor's Americanization and American Arbitration Association

            Frances Alice Kellor (b. 1873) helped found the American Arbitration Association (AAA) in 1926 and served as its vice-President until her death in 1952. The AAA sought to resolve disputes within industries and between nations. In juxtaposing Kellor’s work, the Americanization movement and the AAA, we can come to appreciate Kellor’s genius and the nature of her projects.

Kellor worked to create win-win situations via sociological constructs. This pattern first emerged in her 1904 book investigating the plight of domestic workers, Out of Work.  As a solution, she set up a certification program.  If a housewife saw an employment agency had good grades, she new the workers were well trained and not exploited. Workers could also use this rating to choose employment agencies. Even employing housewives were graded. Rather than pit employers against employees, this system helped all involved.

The AAA utilizes arbitration to solve conflicts. In litigation one side defeats the other in a court of law.  This system creates losers and distorts reality.  Mediation happens when two people agree to discuss their differences in an attempt to come to an amicable resolution.  When honest discussion fails, the two sides can hire an arbitrator.  This neutral third party comes up with a solution that works as well as possible for both parties. While Kellor preferred that the sides would mediate an agreement on their own, if they could not, the AAA would provide a neutral and trained arbitrator for them.

Historians often simply typify the Americanization movement Kellor led as hostile to immigrant culture. In fact, her programs aimed their animus at the prejudice of long-term Americans and industrial exploitation.  If corporations would stop abusing workers, strikes and revolutionary propaganda would cease.  However, the immigrants did not have the power in this relationship.  American institutions would have to shift for all to coexist in harmony. Her movement sought an attitudinal shift that would result in our all winning.

Deeper understanding of the AAA and Americanization comes via remembering Kellor’s Service project. The activist half of the official progressive party, the Service featured a legal branch and an educational branch. The legal branch turned sociologists’ findings into bills. The educational branch got the populace to understand and agitate for these bills. Thus, the Service system limited the importance of politicians and made constant activism more important than elections.

In the Service, the AAA, and the Americanization movement, the medium was the message. Kellor’s employment certification program was to require the cooperation of housewives, workers, agencies, and trained female sociologists.  But the participation was not stressed as an end.  But the Service overtly sought to unite immigrants and long-term Americans via participation in reform efforts. Their working together was as important as their goals. Kellor took great pride in her ability to get thousands of businessmen to volunteer as arbitrators. It gave them practice in envisioning cooperation and solutions that benefited all.  She hoped arbitration would “drive disputes out of American industries in a manner befitting the democracies in which we live.” (NYT, 12/2/41)

In the first half of her career we see Kellor move towards creating unity and win-win situations via mass activism. But as immigration restriction laws were passed, Kellor announced the need to protect “International Human Beings.” In her efforts to protect immigrants, she overtly denounced the national perspective for an international one. Her move towards internationalism also highlighted tension with the concept of Americanization.  From her perspective, the American public was showing itself to be punitive and exclusionary. As such she moved towards working with elites in the AAA. But even at this time, her embrace of internationalism made the word “American” in the title of the AAA anachronistic.

Historians have only understood the Americanization as a reactionary movement born of conservative fears of changes wrought by immigration and industrial change. Rather than a hayseed, Kellor was a cutting-edge sociologist who designed extra-governmental systems with an eye towards fomenting altruism. The failure of the Service and the passage of immigration restriction laws likely drove her to work with elites in the AAA rather than the masses about whom she had lost some faith.   But in all of her efforts, she used sophisticated means to create win-win situations that would call upon the better angels of our nature.

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To what extent was Kellor's switch to working with elites in the AAA a rational assessment of popular attitudes?  Is there a clash between "Enlightened" policies and popular public sentiment now?

What evidence, arguments, and counter-arguments might arise in a debate over whether or not sexism accounted for Kellor only being the Vice-President during her 26 years at the AAA?  

Teachers can find more questions concerning Kellor and the AAA, in the final section of the "Essential Questions Handout," under "Lesson Plans" at www.franceskellor.com