23. She Was Bisexual
In a straitlaced and prudish era, Josephine Baker did little to hide the open secret of her bisexuality. She had several female lovers, dating back to the start of her career in America, where segregation laws prohibited her from checking into hotels, and forced her instead into boarding houses. She ended up composing odes to her “roomnates”, such as in her most famous song, J’ai Deux Amours (I Have Two Loves). Many assumed that song was about the United States and France, her birth and adopted countries. However, when the subtext was parsed, years later, it became clear that the song’s sexuality was not metaphorical, but was about actual sex with males and females.
