Please excuse us while we dedicate our lives to protecting Cassandra Peterson.
In case you’ve just been rescued from a desert island and are logging into the internet for the first time in a while, let’s recap: In her new memoir Yours Cruelly, released in late September, the actress best known for her legendary embodiment of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark shared that she has been in a 19-year relationship with a woman, later revealed to be Teresa “T” Wierson.
And ever since the headlines broke, the LGBTQ+ community has basically been bombarding Peterson with love and positivity.
“They have been fantastic,” the famed horror hostess told ET Canada on Tuesday, referring to her LGBTQ+ fans’ reaction to the news. “They have been wonderful. I mean, I worried about them because I’ve always had a big LGBTQ fanbase and I worried that they would think I was a hypocrite and had been lying to them.”
Oh, Elvira! We would never! And yet we also understand the pressure to stay in the closet: Although Peterson and her partner have long been out to loved ones, the two continued to keep their relationship a secret from the public to protect the Elvira brand.
“I have always tried very hard to keep my private life private because Elvira is Elvira,” Peterson explained. “She’s a character. What I do in my personal life should not affect my character.”
That’s always been broadly true, but Peterson apparently feared that her fans would react poorly to the news of her relationship with Wierson.
“I worried that if I announced I was no longer living the ‘straight life,’ my fans would feel lied to, call me a hypocrite, and abandon me,” she writes in Yours Cruelly. “Would my fans hate me for not being what they expected me to be?... At this point in my life, I’ve got to be truthful about who I am.”
We understand worrying about that kind of treatment from closed-minded straights, but it’s hard not to want to go back in time and reassure Peterson that her queer fans would never reject her for coming out on her own terms. It would be absurd to call her a hypocrite or accuse her of lying to anyone, because when you’re closeted — even, or especially partially — it can bring up strong feelings of shame and self-doubt. But often, when we get up the courage to talk about who we really are, we can be surprised by the amount of love and support we receive, as Peterson is finding out firsthand.
Nobody is lying, even by omission, by not going through some public “coming out” spectacle. Queer liberation includes the right to just be a wholesome, cozy sapphic who plays a B-movie scream queen in public and would prefer to be left alone in private. Ultimately, what matters is that Peterson and her partner are happy and in love this Halloween season.
So cheers to Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson, and to Wierson, who, as Peterson told ET, is a shy person who’s “a little freaked out” by all the media attention. We’re happy to know your story, pleased you could tell it to us, and please don’t ever believe for a second you owe anybody an apology for being in love on your own terms.
Every witchy goth lesbian we know has your back, and we know a lot of them.
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