Sad, but I can't tell if you're trying to be snarky or not. I'll assume you're not.
First off, I know next to nothing about the people the show was based on although I'm aware that it's loosely based on real people. However, I watched the show growing up and can speak to who the characters were on the show.
Your article sounds like you skimmed some surface level research about the show, made some speculations after comparing and contrasting what's known about the actual people it was based on juxtaposed against who the actors were IRL, and wrote an article about those speculations portmandeaued into what that says about the characters, in your opinion, having never actually watched the show.
When I say classical old maid, I mean the Baldwin sisters, the charactersz were old maids in the classic sense of the word. I mean they were unmarried, childless, and unliky to marry after their childbearing years. In other words, they were superannuated virgins. Not lesbians.
No, I do not think they were lesbians. Ashley Longfellow was not a made up suitor to hide their homosexuality. During the course of the show, his son shows up and attempts to scam Miss Emily, so Ashley Longfellow must have been a real love interest at some point.
Here's some of the things you learn about the Baldwin sisters in the show:
They don't renember much about their mother and she's only mentioned once in one episode, so they were pretty young when she died.
Miss Emily, the youngest, is a bit what used to be called addlepated. In other words, a bit Gumpy (think Forrest Gump). You go back to that time frame and it was not unheard of for people to be born a bit addlepated after a difficult birth due to oxygen deprivation from the umbilical cord being wrappes around the neck or forceps being used aggressively or inappropriately in delivery. Home deliveries were also still the norm, especially in rural areas.
There are gints that their mother died either delivering Emily or a younger sibling who also didn't make it.
Their Papa was a judge and a severe man. There are hints he was a raging alcoholic. They talked about his temper a lot. He was also a moonshiner.
They were kept out of school and then sent to some sort of finishing school for their later education.
You get the idea that Papa ran off Ashley Longfellow because he was a n'er-do-well. The son episode kinda reinforces that. And then anytime .iss Emily would go on about Ashley, miss Mamie would get this sour and annoyed look on her face and she'd half hide her face. Sometimes she rolled her eyes.
Miss Mamie stayed because as the elder sister she was parentified and Papa was a selfish, domineering man. Emily also needed protection from a stream of men after their money that was still trickling, even though they were in their late 50s or 60s during the show. Keep in mind that durinf the time they inherited and the timefeame the show was set in, women could only inherit if there were no living male heirs and if they married, the inheritance passed to husband. Women were still under several coverture laws that greatly affected their options in life.
There were options to eacape marriage at the time, none of them were great but many more women availed thenselves of them than you might think. The trick was finsing an alternate means of support, a safe place, and avoiding being pushed into marriage young.
Marriage was actually safer for lesbians. Lot of marriages were sexless and there were ways to get there too.
The world has changed fed a lot between them and now. You can't apply modern sensibilities or logic to situations from then.
