Was she gay? Although she had a lasting personal relationship with Adrienne Barbeau who was her co-star on Maude, who with her fervent gay rights advocacy sparked rumors that she was gay, but Bea Arthur was as straight as possible. She was married twice in her life, both times to men. By Seth Abramovitch. Senior Writer. The guests were by and large gay men — closeted, as most were back then — who were drawn to Arthur, like moths to a porch light.
To honor the late actress, the Center has named a new LGBT homeless shelter in her honor. The Bea Arthur Residence, an bed center located at East 13th Street in New York City, will break. She became a Broadway star in the s with roles in Fiddler on the Roof and Mame, but she became an icon on television. In the s and s, Arthur played divorcee Dorothy, one of four older sexually active women living together in a Florida retirement community, on The Golden Girls. She repaid that love with support for the gay community before her death in
Bea Arthur was a famous actress who was known for her amazing skills and memorable parts on TV and in the theater. Throughout her work, people have wondered about her personal life, including whether or not she is gay. It was a mundane Saturday in late April. But my lazy spring Saturday was about to take a tragic turn. When I got home, I went online to check the news, but nothing noteworthy caught my eye.
Fully aware of the appeal she held over her gay fans, Arthur decided to give something back, and left an endowment to the Ali Forney Center, an organization for homeless LGBT youth in New York. It was , 3 years after we first began offering shelter to homeless LGBT youths. We were a small organization, tiny in comparison to so many of the huge, well-established charities in NYC. But we were addressing a terrible problem, that of LGBT teens being thrown to the streets in enormous numbers by unaccepting parents.