Was Zora Neale Hurston a lesbian?

Answer 1

No she wasn't. Alice Walker, who re-discovered Ms. Hurston wrote in Robert Hemenway's Literary Biography that the story was an invention probably borne in the mouths of her jealous, misogynistic peers and critics who were uncomfortable that Zora was "into the Blackness."

"Zora was funny, irreverent, (she was the first to call the Harlem Renaissance literati the "niggerati"), good-looking and sexy…They disliked her apparent sensuality: the way she tended to marry or not marry men, but enjoyed them anyway, while never missing a beat in her work. They hinted slyly that Zora was gay, or at least bisexual-how else could they account for her drive?-though there is not a shred of evidence that this was true."

Answer 2

There is no concrete evidence to suggest that Zora Neale Hurston identified as a lesbian. She did not publicly discuss her sexual orientation. Hurston was a prominent African American writer and anthropologist known for her contributions to African American literature during the Harlem Renaissance.