Elvira Comes Out As Queer!
Cassandra Peterson, better known as Elvira, released her memoir today, titled Yours Cruelly, Elvira. While the memoir is stacked full of interesting stories both told and yet untold, the most exciting item of note includes brand new information about Cassandra’s long-term romantic partner.
According to Peterson, she has been in a committed relationship with another woman by the name Teresa “T” Wierson.
First of all, we want to congratulate our queen for coming out! Dread Central is an ally to queer horror creators all over the world, so knowing that The Mistress of the Dark is part of the LGBTQ+ community is a major cause for celebration.
Here’s the official cover art for Cruelly Yours, Elvira:
According to Yours Cruelly, Elvira the horror icon found love in a very typical L.A. haunt, Hollywood Gold’s Gym. Our queen was in the middle of a workout when she thought she spotted what she calls “the hottest bad boy” in Hollyweird.
“Often, when I was doing my pre-workout warm-up on the treadmill, I couldn’t help noticing one particular trainer—tan, tattooed, and muscular—stalking across the gym floor, knit cap pulled so low over his long brown hair that it nearly covered his eyes,” Elvira writes in the book. “Dark and brooding, he gave off such intense energy that when he crossed the enormous gym floor, the waters parted and people stopped in their tracks to stare.”
As gender is only a construct, this “bad boy” turned out to be more of a “bad girl”. Wierson became her personal trainer and the two women got along famously. However, Peterson didn’t pursue a relationship with Teresa until her 25-year marriage to Mark Pierson came to an end. But it didn’t take too long.
Not long after her divorce was final, Teresa showed up at Cassandra’s doorstep, also recently single. “There on the doorstep stood my trainer, T, holding a trash bag full of her belongings, looking sad and bedraggled. She’d split from her longtime partner, spent some time in rehab, and now had no place to go,” writes Peterson of the night she became involved with her current partner.
The two women share their first date to the movies when the night became romantic. About her first urge to kiss Teresa, Peterson shared her initial anxiety.
“I think I was even more surprised. What the hell was I doing? I’d never been interested in women as anything other than friends. I felt so confused. This just wasn’t me! I was stunned that I’d been friends with her for so many years and never noticed our chemistry,” she wrote within the memoir. “I soon discovered that we connected sexually in a way I’d never experienced.”
The two women were in love. 19 years have passed and they seem as happy as could be. And Peterson’s truth? She writes that she’s never been happier. “For the first time in my life,” she writes, “I’m with someone who makes me feel safe, blessed, and truly loved.”
Yours Cruelly, Elvira is available now, courtesy of Hachette Books.
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