That’s actually hotly contested within musicology to this day. Poland is a very socially conservative place and they adore Chopin. He is very much a cultural icon there. Even though Chopin spent most of his life in France, studying at French Conservatories. Speaking in French, writing in French etc. His music, contextually is part of the French Romantic Tradition. He has streets and Buildings and Bridges named after him everywhere in Poland. The story of him and Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil is that they were lovers and yes, she wrote in a letter to a mutual acquaintance of theirs after meeting him, asking if Chopin was still engaged to Maria Wodzińska. Maria was his pupil and it lasted one year. They never so much as slept together. -Funnily enough, he was leaving Poland forever and then the last note he sent to his betrothed said “I shall never forget you” and then he immediately forgot her. But, the details of any physical romantic relationship between Chopin and women are very suspect. He did not write love letters to Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (George Sand) He wrote love letters to Multiple men. Amantine idiolised Chopin, because of his talent and she definitely loved him. She was 6 years older than him, had two kids and was fairly standardly Parisian for the time. Liberally promiscuous and wealthy as well. Also he was a very sick man. By the time they were living in Majorca he had been consumptive for 20 years or more. Being diagnosed with tuberculosis multiple times, whooping cough, Laryngitis. At his healthiest he was 170cm (5ft7") very tall for the time and 45kg (99lbs). He was poor, he needed someone to take care of him, so it is largely considered a one-sided relationship. Most researchers today agree that Chopin’s much-described relationship with George Sand was not a romantic relationship in the traditional sense. She was more like a mother, or caretaker.

What is clear is Chopin wrote dozens of letters proclaiming his love and affections for men. Particularly Tytus Woyciechowski. In one such unpublished letter Chopin wrote: “You don’t like being kissed. Please allow me to do so today.” and “You have to pay for the dirty dream I had about you last night.” Letters to Woyciechowski would finish with “Give me a kiss, dearest lover.” In a more famous letter to Tytus, Chopin wrote: “I confide in the piano the things that I sometimes want to say to you. In 1829 he wrote to him saying “I have my ideal, whom I faithfully serve, not having spoken for half a year now, about whom I dream, with thoughts of whom the Adagio from my Concerto came to be, who this morning inspired the little waltz that I am sending you." A translation was published by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, Poland, described his “ideal” as a woman, despite the original letter using the masculine version of the Polish noun and it being written to Tytus. He would visit him a year later and write a letter afterwards recalling the time. “I tell you sincerely that it is pleasant to recall all of this. Your fields left in me some sort of longing; that birch under the windows just will not leave my memory. That crossbow! How romantic it all was! I remember that crossbow, with which you really wore me out - for all my sins.” This is a man Chopin openly kissed and held hands with in public and proclaimed his love for in writing. The only mention of female relationships in these letters to Tytus and his other male “friends” are in footnotes. To this day, the veracity of these footnotes has never been verified. It is very possible they were added to the letters at a later time, to obfuscate his sexuality. It’s also the case that bad-faith translations have be used outside of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute incident. There’s numerous translation errors, between Polish and French, as his original biographers, did not speak Polish and a lot of historical materials have been edited, translated, republished, re-translated and there is a lot of straight washing.

Personally, I believe he was a homosexual, born into conservative Polish society. He sought to become married, as his mother wanted him to. Proposed to Maria, knowing he was moving to Paris which is much more liberal and as a sick man, used Amantine Lucile. Poland, only recently outlawed “LGBTQ+ Free Zones.” The last minister for finance in Poland maligned that the country was overrun with a “Rainbow Plague.” In conclusion, Chopin was gay. He’s also an incredibly important symbol of nationalism is Poland. Which is inherently Right-wing and intolerant. So, they edit stuff and try to push the narrative of George Sands and say he was flamboyant that’s why he kissed his “friends” on the mouth. It’s better now, but, outside of big cities homophobia is an expected part of Polish culture.

Source: Did 4 years of Western Musical History as part of my BA in Music. Backpacked through Poland in the 2010s. Still Love Poland, especially Polish girls.

A woman who was not known for her conformity to gender norms. It’s not unlikely that their shared queerness was what kept them together.