Here to me, they were connected and in a positive way. She was writing about a being a lesbian. Her advice was how she wrote her first two lesbian novels. I was working for a lesbian press at the time and living with my first lover. We did not know many other lesbians and there was no other openly lesbian professor at my university. My chosen instrument professor was a totally closeted gay man - being open was not yet done. It was dangerous and against the law to have homosexual relations at that time in the state we were in(it can still be dangerous even in the u.s.). She could have been denied tenure because of it (hell it was just 5 years after they quit having it in the dsm as a mental illness)- but she was writing about it. I would not look to her about which dog breed to get or any number of other areas, but in writing advice - I did. Writing about her connection of being openly gay in my post was for me - not for anyone else really. It was a warm memory for me.
It is okay with me that you do not get it - you don't have to get it. And like I said in an earlier post - it does not matter in a vacuum. But it very much was special to me and the attention she paid to me and how she was willing to be a mentor in writing and in being out of the closet. And it made me happy to remember it today. What you do with the information or don't do with it is up to you.