Wives Rosie Geiser and Dottie Mathews are in both in their 70s and have been together since the 1990s.
They spoke about the importance of faith in their lives and in their relationship.
Alphabet Soup shares LGBTQ+ Missourians’ stories through portraiture and personal narratives.
Dottie Mathews: I was raised Catholic, and faith has been a part of my life, various forms of faith. I'm an ordained minister, retired now.
But the idea of being queer, even though I grew up in Los Angeles, was just not, it was nothing that entered my consciousness as available to me. I was always a tomboy, but I always also envisioned that I would get married as soon as I graduated high school, which was what people my age group did at that time, and I did.
I married a man and we divorced for very good reasons that had nothing to do with my sexuality, but once I was free of that marriage in my 30s, I realized that I was attracted to women and never went back.
And I have said to many people that it felt like my life went from black and white to technicolor.
Rosie Geiser: I grew up Catholic, also, and actually went to the convent to become a nun, and was there for 30+ years.
And at some point I made the decision to leave religious life. It just wasn't fitting for me anymore, and I realized that I was really in love with my best friend from high school, this woman who had been with me all those years.
We then made a decision that we were going to commit our lives to each other and live together, and, even at that point, I don't know that I called myself a lesbian. I just knew that I loved my best friend from high school.
And unfortunately she died – she had breast cancer and died, and when I was coming through that grieving process, I realized that if I wanted to be in another relationship, I really didn't know – did I want to be with a woman or a man?
And Dottie came along in my life, and I realized I do love women, and that's where I was going to stay.
Dottie Mathews: For me, faith is – and it's actually true for both of us, I think, but it's one of the things that bonds us.
But faith has been very, very important, and it's got a very wide definition. It actually kind of breaks my heart about how christianity has become synonymous with nationalism – some forms of Christianity, fundamentalist Christianity.
That it is used as a tool to hurt people rather than I think the true message of Christianity can be one of embracing love. I
I don't identify as a Christian, but I know people that do that are extremely loving, people that would welcome everyone and kind of have the same idea as us as far as appreciating diversity.
So, I am not anti-Christian, but I do feel like the Christian message has been co-opted and is often used to hurt people, and especially, there are many, many, many gay, lesbian, trans people who are suffering enormously because of how they've been treated in their faith communities.
![Willow Wilson sits on a chair in her living room on Friday, April 5, 2024, at her apartment in Columbia. When Wilson was selecting her name, she said she originally had nearly 100 names to choose from on a Word document. For a while, Wilson said she almost committed to the name “Rumor” because it had a “cool, sultry” and “femme fatale” feel. “But I eventually settled on the Willow just because I think Willow Wilson is such a distinctive name,” Wilson said. “It's kind of like [a] Peter Parker, Clark Kent kind of vibe. … Not to sound too egotistical, but that is a very main character name, and I kind of liked that. And I liked that it was very earthy and crunchy and kind of, you know, hippie, a little bit. So, I think Willow was kind of like, where I was like, ‘Yeah, I like that: Willow Wilson.’ That definitely sounds like a lady who's about town and making the most of her life.”](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7f71366/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1750x1158+0+0/resize/260x172!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F41%2F05%2F730cbb9e4211a4e6e37f185c7caf%2F20240405-bas-queer-joy-willow-wilson-0019.jpg)