14 Famous Queer Ladies Who Got Gayer a Little Later In Life

The “late-in life lesbian” narrative bucks a lot of assumptions people make about the coming out experience. The traditional lesbian narrative goes something like this: in girlhood, the protagonist encounters a series of “signs” that suggest homosexuality is afoot. The protagonist feels nothing for boys, and so many things for girls, usually culminating in a crush on a straight best friend during adolescence. Often, intolerant parents and friends will encourage the protagonist to be straight, thus repressing the protagonist’s desire. Usually by the time the protagonist graduates high school, the question isn’t if they wanted to live the life of a lez, but when they’d have the chance to start living the life of a lez. Even the coming out stories I knew in popular culture — Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O’Donnell, Melissa Etheridge — tended to be people who always knew, and often lived gay lives, but were careful about when they revealed that information to the public. My own journey just wasn’t that clear-cut, and I’m certainly not alone in that.

This list is about women who didn’t fall for another woman or realize they were queer until a little later in life — not women who were consciously in the closet for most of their lives.  It’s complicated to determine, with celebrities, who falls into this category, because they have an extra step that the rest of us don’t — there’s family, friends, work… and then the ENTIRE F*CKING WORLD. The list of celebrities who came out to the world as adults because they weren’t ready when they were younger is a very long one, including Robin Roberts, Jodie Foster, Joanna Johnson and Krissy McNichol.

This list is women who were over 35 by the time they not only came out to the ENTIRE F*CKING WORLD, but also by the time they came out to themselves or their family or even knew they were queer or liked women at all.

This post about famous women who came out to themselves and us over the age of 30 was originally published in 2014 and has been updated in 2021.

1. Jenna Lyons, Executive Creative Director of J. Crew

LOS ANGELES, CA. November 14, 2016: J.Crew president Jenna Lyons at the Glamour Magazine 2016 Women of the Year Awards at NeueHouse, Hollywood.

I was finding myself really attracted to this person, and yes, we had kissed, and maybe some other things had happened, but I wasn’t like, “Okay, I’m gay!” I was just as surprised as the world was. I still don’t know: Am I gay, am I bi? I don’t know if it really matters.

Former J.Crew President and Creative Director and current fashion icon / entrepreneur Jenna Lyons was married to Vincent Mazeau for nine years, and after their divorce, Lyons fell in love with Courtney Crangi, the sister and business partner of jewler Philip Crangi, and the relationship became public knowledge in 2011. In 2013, when Lyons was 44, she publicly acknowledged her relationship with Crangi in her Glamour Magazine Woman of the Year acceptance speech. They split in 2017.

2. Meredith Baxter, Actress

LOS ANGELES – APR 24: Meredith Baxter at The 42nd Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Gala at the Universal Hilton Hotel on April 24, 2015 in Los Angeles, California

“I am a lesbian, and it was a later-in-life recognition. I got involved with someone I never expected to get involved with, and it was that kind of awakening. I never fought it because it was like, oh, I understand why I had the issues I had early in life. I had a great deal of difficulty connecting with men in relationships.”

Famous Family Ties actress Meredith Baxter came out to herself in 2002 (and to us in 2009, thus “joining a group of later-in-life lesbians“), after three marriages and a brief lesbian affair in 1996 that she didn’t take seriously at the time. She was married to Robert Lewis Bush, with whom she had two children, from 1966-1971, and then married David Birney in 1974, and had three children with him, including twins. They divorced in 1989. Her third marriage, to actor Michael Blodgett, spanned from 1995-2000. She began dating her now-partner, Nancy Locke, in 2005, and rumors began swirling about her sexuality after she appeared on a Sweet Cruise in November 2009. She told The Today Show that it was a same-sex relationship in 2002 that changed her everything: “It was that kind of awakening. I never fought it because it was like, oh, I understand why I had the issues I had early in life. I had a great deal of difficulty connecting with men in relationships.” She married Nancy Locke in 2013, and they’re still together.

3. Carlease Burke, Actress

LOS ANGELES – JAN 13: Carlease Burke at the NBCUniversal TCA Press Day Winter 2016 at the Langham Huntington Hotel on January 13, 2016 in Pasadena, CA (by Kathy Hutchins)

“I knew what a lesbian was, but there were no role models. I was raised in the black Baptist church, and there were gay guys who were choir directors, but they weren’t talked about. Deep down inside, I’d think that’s who I am, but I didn’t have the nerve to pursue that. All along I had lesbian and gay friends, but I couldn’t see myself going down that route due to fear. I started meeting more women while working as a comic, met a young lady in 1994 who caught my eye. It didn’t end up being a good relationship, but I grew up a lot … I started being more free and flirty in comedy clubs. From that moment on, it gave me a lot to talk about.”

Carleease Burke has been out for over two decades, but as a young person, she didn’t see herself pursuing a lesbian life. She got her first role, in a TV movie, in 1989, and has been working as an actress ever since. In 1994, she met a special lady, and thus at the age of 40, in her first relationship, she came out to her mother. She told AfterEllen in 2007 that she felt “25 in dyke years, because I came out so late.” Burke recently played Ms. Rose on Switched at Birth, you may also recognize her from In Her Shoes, Get Shorty, Shameless and pretty much every TV show, ever. Seriously, she has been in every single TV show ever.

4. Kelly McGillis, Actress

Kelly McGillis at the Los Angeles Premiere of “Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time” in Hollywood, California, United States on May 17, 2010.

“Life is a freaking journey, and it’s about growing and changing, and coming to terms with who and what you are, and loving who and what you are.”

Julliard graduate Kelly McGillis was an enormously successful actress in the ’80s, memorably starring opposite Tom Cruise in Top Gun and playing leading roles in Witness and The Accused. She married a fellow Julliard student, Boyd Black, in 1979, but they divorced in 1981. She had two children with millionaire Fred Tillman, who she was married to from 1989-2002. They co-owned a bar in Key West where she met her eventual partner, Melanie Leis, in 2000. In 2009, she came out in an interview with SheWired, and her and Leis entered into a civil union in 2010 which was dissolved in 2011. McGillis now teaches acting in Asheville, North Carolina.

5. Cynthia Nixon, Actress

New York, NY – June 24, 2018: Christine Marinoni & Cynthia Nixon attend 49th annual New York pride parade along 7th avenue

“I never felt like there was an unconscious part of me around that woke up or that came out of the closet; there wasn’t a struggle, there wasn’t an attempt to suppress. I met this woman, I fell in love with her, and I’m a public figure.”

Actress / activist / politician Cynthia Nixon and her long-time partner, Danny Mozes, with whom she’d had two children, split up in 2003, and then Nixon met Christine Marinoni, a public-school advocate. Nixon fell in love, and then, around the same time her landmark television series Sex and the City was wrapping up, rumors began flying. They married in 2012.

7. Carol Leifer, Comedian, Writer & Actress

Carol Leifer at the 2012 Writers Guild Awards, Hollywood Palladium, Hollywood, CA 02-19-12

I’m finding, especially with women, a couple of different kinds of gays. I’ve met people who say, “I knew I was gay my whole life, and I lived this lie, and then I finally came out.” My kind of gay is like the late-breaking-lesbian kind of gay. I mean, I was attracted to boys. My first crush was on Davy Jones. My kind of gay, meeting a woman and falling in love, is a different experience because it wasn’t anything about “Oh, I’ve always been gay and I’m breaking the chains.” The whole experience spun me around. I really thought this was going to be a fun fling, and I had no idea that it would become this finding my soul mate, the love-of-my-life sort of deal. It does make you feel reticent about talking about it at the beginning because you’re not sure if it’s real, if it’s going to stick.

Leifer only dated men until she met her now-partner, Lori Wolf, at the age of 40. In fact, Leifer quite famously dated Jerry Seinfeld before the show and was not only an inspiration for the character of Elaine, but eventually joined the show’s writing team. Leifer has been doing stand-up for decades, writes for The Academy Awards, and was involved in shoes including The Ellen Show and The Larry Sanders Show. She’s also written two books, When You Lie About Your Age, The Terrorists Win, in which she discusses her relationships, and How to Succeed In Business Without Really Crying.

8. Wanda Sykes, Comedian & Actress

LOS ANGELES – AUG 29: Wanda Sykes arrives at the 2010 Emmy Awards at Nokia Theater at LA Live on August 29, 2010 in Los Angeles, CA

“I’m proud to be a woman. I’m proud to be a black woman, and I’m proud to be gay. We are so together now and we all want the same thing and we shouldn’t have to settle for less.”

Wanda Sykes says she can trace back sneaking suspicions that she might be a total homo to childhood, but she repressed those emotions and didn’t start confronting them after her 1998 divorce from record producer Dave Hall, who she’d been married to for seven years. She came out to her parents at age 40 and four years later, in 2008, came out to the world at a same-sex marriage rally. She married her partner Alex, who she met in 2006, in 2008, before Prop 8 passed. They have two children.

9. Maria Bello, Actress

LOS ANGELES – OCT 14: Maria Bello arrives for the ELLE Women in Hollywood on October 14, 2019 in Westwood, CA

46-year old actress and activist Maria Bello had a soul-searching moment reading old journals in her garden, which she described for a New York Times‘ Modern Love column in December 2013, when she realized that her long-time best friend, Claire Munn, was somebody she could love romantically. “What had I been waiting for all of these years?” Bello wondered. “She is the person I like being with the most, the one with whom I am most myself.” Bello described her new “modern family” in “Modern Love” which included a close friendship with her ex, TV Executive Dan McDermott, who is the father of her son. In 2019, she got engaged to French chef Dominique Crenn, the only female chef in the U.S. to attain three Michelin stars.

10. Niecy Nash

LOS ANGELES – JUL 11: Niecy Nash at the Niecy Nash honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 11, 2018 in Los Angeles, CA

“I was not suppressing my sexuality my whole life. I love who I love. At one point in my life, I married twice and I love those people. And today I love this person. I’ve done everything I wanted to do on my own terms and my own way. So my choice now in a partner has nothing to do with who I’ve always been. It’s a matter of who I am in this moment.”

2020’s sole highlight was 49-year-old actress / comic / TV host Niecy Nash marrying Jessica Betts, who she’d been friends with since 2015, when she was still married to her now-ex Jay Tucker. About 4.5 years into their friendship, after her divorce from Tucker, they went out to eat crabs and she realized over shellfish that she had stronger feelings for Betts. “I loved her before I was in love with her because she is such a special human being. But we began to see each other in a way we never had before.” Nash has chosen not to label herself, but is proud to call Betts her hersband.

11. Elizabeth Gilbert

NEW YORK – JANUARY 05: Author Elizabeth Gilbert signing her book ‘Committed’ at Barnes&Noble bookstore on JANUARY 05, 2010 in New York City.

Novelist and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert came out on Facebook in 2016 at the age of 47, announcing that she was in love with and in a relationship with her best friend of 15 years, Rayya Ellis, having realized her feelings for Elias following Elias’s terminal cancer diagnosis. They had a commitment ceremony prior to Ellis’s passing in 2018.

12. Glennon Doyle

via Momastery

“…what if I demand freedom not because I was ‘born this way’ and ‘can’t help it’ but because I can do whatever I choose to do with my love and my body.”

Author and activist Glennon Doyle met soccer player Abby Wambach in November 2016 while Doyle was on a book tour, and still married to her now ex-husband, Craig. She and Wambach got together, shacked up and got married more or less immediately, and they’re still going strong!

13. Lauren Morelli

LOS ANGELES – APR 25: Samira Wiley, Lauren Morelli at the Premiere Of Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” at Cinerama Dome ArcLight on April 25, 2017 in Los Angeles, CA

Despite “being 31 years old, having lived in extremely liberal cities for 13 years of my life and considering myself an educated individual,” screenwriter/director Lauren Morelli didn’t realize she was gay until her first season as a writer on Orange is the New Black. She recalls feeling like “if I was really gay, I would have known when I was younger. There was a prescribed narrative, and everything about my own story challenged the accepted one.” She is now happily married to our beloved Samira Wiley.

14. Stacy London

NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 06: Stacy London attends the Launch Party of Sally Kohn’s new book ‘The Opposite Of Hate’ at Guggenheim Museum on April 6, 2018 in New York City.

In 2020, former “What Not to Wear” co-host and current “fashion maven” Stacy London announced that she is in a relationship with musician Cat Yezbak, and that it was her first serious relationship with a woman. “So I used to date men,” she said in her Instagram post about the relationship. “Now I date her. That’s it. That’s all I have to say. Happy New Year to each and every one of you.”

12 TV Stars Of The ’80s and ’90s Who Turned Out To Be Lesbian, Bisexual or Otherwise Totally Queer

This morning at the gym I was thinking about Tori from Saved By The Bell and how she reminded me of my babysitter and how I thought she was the all-time coolest and then I found out that the actress who played her was gay and my head exploded! So then I decided to make this list.

Some of the women on this list were out when they were on television, but most of them kept their sexual orientation on the down low until recently. Let’s look back at all the girls we lusted after who it turns out also enjoyed lusting after other girls!

1. Leanne Creel, Tori in Saved By The Bell

Greenberg/Creel Family Photo by Katie Hawkins

Suddenly Kelly Kapowski and Jessie Spano were nowhere to be seen and instead we were gifted with this smokin’ hot tough girl in a leather jacket. No explanation whatsoever! After acting in a bunch of shows about teenagers, Creel went to UCLA and got into film production. She now runs her own production company and married her partner Rinat Greenberg on June 17, 2008, during that brief window of legalized same-sex marriage in California before Prop 8 was passed. They have two sons.

2. Meredith Baxter, Elyse Keaton on Family Ties

Famous Family Ties actress Meredith Baxter came out to herself in 2002 (and to us in 2009), after three marriages and a brief lesbian affair in 1996 that she didn’t take seriously at the time. She began dating her now-wife, Nancy Locke, in 2005, and rumors began swirling about her sexuality after she appeared on a Sweet Cruise in November 2009. She told The Today Show that it was that same-sex relationship in 2002 that changed her everything: “It was that kind of awakening. I never fought it because it was like, oh, I understand why I had the issues I had early in life. I had a great deal of difficulty connecting with men in relationships.”

3. Raven-Symone, Olivia on The Cosby Show

The cutest little kid on The Cosby Show grew up into the cutest most crittery woman who enjoys the company of other women.

4. Margaret Cho, Margaret on All-American Girl

The short-lived 1994 sitcom All-American Girl became a legendary catastrophe and Margaret Cho‘s famous for much more than being on this show. (For example: stand-up!) But the sitcom was my introduction to Margaret Cho (I genuinely loved the show) and will always be remembered as the first American prime-time network sitcom about an Asian-American family. (The second, Fresh off the Boat, premiered this year.)

5. Sara Gilbert, Darlene Conner on Roseanne

Darlene didn’t have to be a lesbian to be a lesbian fashion icon, so Sara Gilbert coming out as an adult felt like a pretty natural next-step in her development as a public figure . She’s now a co-host on The Talk, has a recurring role on The Big Bang Theory, and is married to Linda Perry. She has two children with her ex, TV Producer Allison Adler, and is currently pregnant!

6. Kristy McNichol, “Buddy” on Family and Barbara Weston on Empty Nest

After starring in the hit movie Little Darlings and the TV show Family, Kristy McNichol landed what turned out to be a 200+ episode role on Empty Nest, eventually leaving the show in 1992. McNichol then vanished from the public eye for quite some time and re-emerged in 2012 as a bona-fide lesbian.

7. Iyari Limon, Kennedy on Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Technically, this would count as a TV star of the early ’00s, since Limon joined the cast of this ’90s show in the early ’00s. BUT WHATEVER.

Limon joined the Buffy cast late in the game, playing Willow’s new love interest, Kennedy. In a 2006 interview with AfterEllen, Limon revealed that she’d had “intimacy” with a female friend as a teenager but didn’t think she was gay or bi, even while doing research for her role on Buffy. Then she met DJ Sandra Edge, who she was dating at the time of the interview. “I loved how she was just in her own little world, and she was so cute,” she told AE. “I love androgyny, androgynous women. You know, short hair, really don’t have to wear a lot of make-up, pretty face, just cool and confident and know who they are.” She actually auditioned for the role of Carmen on The L Word, and during her audition, ad libbed “Quiero lamerte hasta que te vengas en mi boca mil veces” (“I want to lick you until you come in my mouth a thousand times”) into Kate Moennig’s ear. Although Limon didn’t get the part, The L Word kept the line. She married her husband Alejandro Soltero in 2007.

8. Sandra Bernhard, Nancy Bartlett on Roseanne

Stand-up comedian and actress Sandra Bernhard played Nancy Bartlett, one of the first openly lesbian recurring characters on American television, from 1991-1997. Bernhard has been openly bisexual for quite some time, including that time she gave Patricia Velasquez her big gay awakening. She has a daughter, is in a relationship with Sara Switzer and is currently on a stand-up tour.

9. Amanda Bearse, Marcy D’Arcy on Married… With Children

Bearse got her start in theater, eventually landing a recurring role on All My Children in the early ’80s. But she’s best known for playing Marcy D’Arcy on Married…with Children for ten years (1987-1997). She’s been an out lesbian since 1993, and married to her wife Carrie Schenken since 2010. Furthermore, she and Rosie O’Donnell are responsible for bringing The Big Gay Sketch Show to Logo in 2007.

10. Maia Brewton, Shelly Lewis on Parker Lewis Can’t Lose

You’re might recognize her from Adventures in Babysitting, but Brewton also starred as Shelly Lewis on Parker Lewis Can’t Lose for three years. She married her partner Laura Spots in 2008.

11. Geri Jewell, Cousin Geri on The Facts of Life

Jewell is best known for her 1980-1984 role on The Facts of Life, which made her the first person with a disability to have a regular role on a prime time TV series. The title of her 2011 autobiography, I’m Walking As Straight As I Can, was a nod towards her lesbianism. LGBTQ Nation reports that the book “talks about her struggles growing up with a disability and how she dealt with her sexuality as a child, and her struggles as an adult with tax problems and drug addiction.”

12. Ellen DeGeneres, Ellen on Ellen

DID YOU KNOW? DID YOU KNOW THAT ELLEN DEGENERES FROM THAT FUNNY SITCOM ELLEN IS GAY? SHE EVEN CAME OUT AS GAY ON HER SHOW!! IT WAS A REALLY BIG DEAL!

New Gaga Song, LiLo, Meredith Baxter: Pop Friday Gay Grab Bag

MEREDITH BAXTER:

Meredith Baxter is doing the talk show circuit promoting her memoir, Untied, with appearances on The Today Show and Oprah. The inevitable soundbite is where she describes her second ex-husband, David Birney, physically abusing her.

“It was so sudden and unexpected, I couldn’t tell you which hand hit me, or even how hard. I do recall thinking, I’d better not get up because he’s going to hit me again.”

She says she drank heavily to cope with the abuse, but has been sober since 1990. Why didn’t she get out of a marriage she calls abusive?

“I didn’t know I had a choice. I didn’t know I could go…it wasn’t an accident we were together. For him to be who he needed to be, it had to be someone who was kind of mousy and quiet and retiring, and that’s who I was.”

Meredith came out in 2009 and has three children with Birney.

LADY GAGA:

Lady Gaga talks some personal sex details in the new issue of Grazia:

“I didn’t lose my virginity until I was 17. But I have to say even then I wasn’t ready and it was an absolutely terrible experience. It wasn’t good at all. I never actually enjoyed sex until two years ago. It was a proper monogamous relationship in which I felt free enough to trust and I had enough self love. I have never not had safe sex, I have always asked a guy to be tested and to use protection, which was always my rule… otherwise, you’re playing Russian Roulette.”

Lady Gaga also previewed a Born This Way new track called “Government Hooker” at the Thierry Mugler fashion show in Paris today.

LINDSAY LOHAN:

LiLo has taped her first TV interview since leaving rehab. She appears somewhat normal here, so maybe there’s hope?

“I miss being on set. I really do miss it. I know there’s going to be a lot of steps I’ll have to go through to prove myself again and get the trust from people I respect to work with, but I’m willing to do what I have to do to get there. That’s what I aspired to do my whole life, and personal instances in my life have gotten in the way. But I don’t want that to be what I am known for, the tabloid stuff, that’s not me. I don’t like the attention. I don’t want my attention to come through my films and the work I am doing, not from going to the hair salon.”

REAL L WORD:

Lock up your daughters and hide your wives. Showtime has announced that Season 2 will premiere on Sunday, June 5th for nine more episodes of lesbian wonderment. The official cast list hasn’t been made public, but it should be out by end of the month. We already know but we’re not allowed to tell you.

#LEAVEXTINAALONE:

WONDER WOMAN:

Elizabeth Hurley will play Wonder Woman’s nemesis and there might be some lezzie action involved which will likely not satiate us in the least, as these things rarely do.

DAISY LOWE:

Daisy Lowe is a “mild lesbian.” I don’t know what that means.

Out 100 Features Rachel Maddow, Others (Mostly Gay Guys).

It’s the question on every lesbian’s mind: which straight woman will earn the coveted honor in 2010 of appearing on the cover of the Out 100 People of the Year? Who, in the year two-thousand-and-ten, will follow in the prodigious footsteps of previous Straight Female Cover-Stars like Cyndi Lauper (2009), Katy Perry (2008), Jennifer Hudson (2007) and Mary Louise Parker (2007)?

+

WAIT NO LONGER, CHILDREN, IT’S JULIANE MOORE:

For 2010, OUT really outdid itself by adding a real-live lesbo to the cover — and not just any lesbian, but the lesbian nearest & dearest to my heart — Rachel Maddow! (Also, HAY JOHNNY WEIR)

I was going to write the obligatory “bitching about how OUT’s list is 95% men” post, but you know what? I don’t care. OUT is a magazine for gay men. It’s a national monthly glossy magazine with award-winning authors, big name advertisers, occasional acts of investigative journalism and an evolving and impeccably maintained website. Why do they have this fancy list in this fancy magazine with big stars and professional photographers photographing dozens of men who appeal to the men who read their magazine? Because gay men are willing to pay for things and you, my sisters, are not. (Except for everybody who gives money to Autostraddle or buys a calendar. You’re the good kind of lesbian/straight person/banana.) Apparently gay men are interested in expensive watches. I subscribe to OUT. When was the last time you bought an expensive watch. You just use your phone, dontcha.  Also, GO! Mag makes a 100 Women We Love list every year and it features 100 women and one of them is me and another one of them is Julie Goldman and another is Miss April, so go read that.

So, the Out 100 has debuted, according to 17 emails I’ve received from various PR agencies today. Now let’s discuss some of our favorite persons on this year’s list!

[L to R, clockwise, starting at the top: Jasika Nicole, Amos Mac & Rocco Kayiatos, Mariah Hanson, Katie Miller, Meredith Baxter, Mary Glasspool, Chris Colfer]

Jasika Nicole, Actress:

You know how every year we get like 6 or 7 more hot young cute lesbians on our proverbial radar? That was Jasika Nicole this year. We’ve never seen Fringe, but we sure do like her face.

Amos Mac & Rocco Kayiatos, Editors:

Our BFF Amos Mac started Original Plumbing because he “didn’t see anything in the media representing transmen other than frenzied talk shows and porn.” A surprising success story, OP celebrated its first anniversary last month and was named Best Zine of 2010 in the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

[Read Amos Mac’s Autostraddle Interview]

Mariah Hanson, Dinah Shore Masterbrain

“Fancy hotels, skimpy bikinis, giant pool parties—Mariah Hanson’s the Dinah could easily be described as spring break for lesbians. But the producer behind the annual Palm Springs, Calif., gathering sees it as more than that. “I want it to be the most amazing, show-stopping, mind-boggling, blockbuster event that one can imagine,” she says of the bash, the largest of Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend. “I think lesbians deserve it.”

[Read Mariah Hanson’s Autostraddle Interview]

Mhm. We agree.

Katie Miller, Student/Activist

Jerry Maguire’s got nothing on Katie Miller’s resignation letter : “I am unwilling to suppress an entire portion of my identity any longer because it has taken a significant personal, mental, and social toll on me and detrimentally affected my professional development. I have experienced a relentless cognitive dissonance by attempting to adhere to §654 [colloquially known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”] and retain my integrity, and I am retrospectively convinced that I am unable to live up to the Army Values as long as the policy remains in place..”

Katie went to the VMAs with Lady Gaga and has also been a repeat guest on The Rachel Maddow Show and is studying political science at Yale University.

Chris Colfer, actor:

Sometimes when I watch Glee I feel like, I wish Kurt had gone to my high school, I feel like we could’ve been friends.

Meredith Baxter, actress:

Meredith Baxter came out in December of 2009 and the world was super happy to discover that Mama Keaton is a lesbian! Also, she’s a graduate of the boarding school where I had my first girl-on-girl experience so I think that’s important.

[Watch her Autonatic Interview]

Mary Glasspool, Bishop

This year Mary Glasspool became the first elected openly lesbian bishop in the Episcopal diocese and the second openly homosexual Episcopal Bishop. The first, Gene Robinson, recently announced his intent to retire early due to the emotional toll that being an Openly Gay Bishop has taken on him and his partner.

[L to R, starting in upper right corner: Fatima Robinson, Chely Wright, Kimberly Reed & Laverne Cox & Jincey Lumpkin, Heather Cassils, Rachel Maddow, Jennifer Knapp, Chris Pureka, Lisa Chodenko]

Heather Cassils, personal trainer/performance artist

Heather Cassils made out with Lady Gaga in the prisonyard in Telephone and also has a whole career and life that has nothing to do with Lady Gaga but something to do with bodybuilding, Movement Research, Greek mythology and Art. Cassils says things like “My body is a complete construction. When you can present people with an image of something that’s ‘other’ — something in between that doesn’t have binaries — it offers them more options.” We don’t know what she means by that but it sounds sexy. Like Judith Butler sexy.

Chely Wright, Musician

Chely Wright, The Woman Who Came Out on Cinco De Gayo, told Out, “I need to show folks how low I got — this was do or die for me.” I read her book, Like Me, and liked it Taylor read it too in a Barnes & Noble in Kentucky, all in one sitting, and then she went on to a bar to drink and cry for four hours. This all happened before 5pm. You should read it.

Lisa Cholodenko, Filmmaker:

She made The Kids Are All Right, which changed lesbian culture everywhere for everyone.

Jennifer Knapp, Christian Singer:

When Jennifer Knapp came out this year, we knew we had a good one on our team. She’d stopped recording or performing for 8 years while living in the closet and then decided to come back gay.

Chris Pureka, Musician:

Chris Pureka makes me cry real girl tears all the time, I can’t even talk about it.

Rachel Maddow, Superhuman:

Let’s not mince words: there’s nothing I can say about Rachel Maddow that you don’t already know. But right now I’m watching this video of her interviewing John Stewart uncut and it’s really good. That’s your Rachel Maddow news for the day.

Also, here’s some new names we noticed on this year’s list that we didn’t already know about, but should defo start knowing about:

+ Yoruba Richen: Filmmaker

+ Kimberly Reed, transgender lesbian filmmaker

+ Emma Donoghue, Author

+ Fatima Robinson, Choreographer

+ Laverne Cox, first African-American transgender woman to appear on an American reality show

+ Jincey Lumpkin, “chief sexy officer” of Juicy Pink Box

Okay, look at that photo of Rachel Maddow before you go to sleep and dream about 100 people standing in a circle eating cupcakes and singing “We Shall Overcome.” Okay good. Happy Friday night!

Rosie O’Donnell Does Oprah, Will Do Dinah Shore, Also Meredith Baxter’s Coming!

ROSIE: Okay we were mostly pretending to be excited about Ke$ha, but we’re genuinely excited that Rosie O’Donnell will be headlining Club Skirts Comedy Night at the 2010 Dinah Shore Weekend.

With Rosie doing stand-up and Salt-n-Peppa headlining the musical night it is basically gonna be like the early 90’s up in there except for that in the early 90’s we still dated boys. Luckily, we love the early 90’s b/c of all the heartwarming Tom Hanks movies, Beavis & Butthead, Ani DiFranco’s Both Hands and Boyz II Men. Will it be even better than last year? Our sources say YES!

Rosie O’Donnell started her career as a stand-up comedian, later moving on to a prolific film & television & show-hosting career. Dinah Shore is being billed as her “big return” to the game (sidenote: we’ve seen her do stand-up on RFamily Cruises a few times, SO GET READY).

The word from our hyperbolic boundlessly energetic Dinah Shore press release:

“I am beyond thrilled to have Rosie O’Donnell join our stellar entertainment line-up on our 20th Anniversary,” says Mariah Hanson, founder of Club Skirts Presents The Dinah®, “my customers love Rosie. She’s a role model, a beacon of hope, and a voice of truth. And at The Dinah, once again, she’ll do what we have missed from her for years: stand up. And no one, and I mean no one, does it better than Rosie!”

Other exciting events planned for Dinah Shore include:

+ A special “No H8” Sunday Pool Party hosted by award-winning fashion photographer Adam Bouska and Jeff Parshley, co-founders of the iconic N0 H8 campaign, will take place at The Hilton Hotel on Sunday, April 4th.

+ AUTOSTRADDLE! A unique celebrity fashion show sponsored by “No H8″ Campaign will be hosted during the White Diamond Party on Friday, April 2 featuring Autostraddle’s very own Nat Garcia!

+ “Family Ties” actress Meredith Baxter will make a public appearance joining the prestigious panel of celesbians and entertainment luminaries that will grace the catwalk in support of the LGBT community’s fight for equality.

+ AUTOSTRADDLE! Also new this year is the creative and original battle of the webseries hosted by One More Lesbian and featuring the ladies of Autio/Video, and a “never-been-done-before astonishing circus in and beer garden.” (We’re not sure what that last part means either)

+ Autostraddle CEO Riese having a mental breakdown because she doesn’t like other people or crowds and holding a pow-wow with whiskey & Executive Editor Laneia on the bathroom floor either live in person or via telephone.

Also! Rosie O’Donnell was on Oprah yesterday and was predictably endearing, funny, and wise. She talked about splitting with Kelli & keeping the family, how she’ s grateful to be alive having lived past how old her mother is when she died, her new radio show, her upcoming HBO special and life in general. Here’s the first part of the interview I know it’s 10 minutes long, but it’s totally worth it, you guys:

You can find the rest of the interview (also worth it) on Youtube!

ELLEN & ROSIE: Also, we recently found this amazing video of Ellen DeGeneres on the Rosie O’Donnell Show before her famous coming out episode of Ellen. We just wanted to share it with you.

+
Also you guys it’s Ellen’s birthday and Adam Lambert will be performing on her show later SO WATCH IT OBVIOUSLY.

TARGET: Sarah Haskins will no longer be making episodes of Target Women, which is super sad! But it looks like she’s on to bigger and better things: There are two big funny projects in the works — both co-written with Emily Halpern — Booksmart, which is at Fox, and we’re working on a screenplay entitled Lunch Lady for Amy Poehler. Sarah Haskins an Amy Poehler on the same project! (@jezebel)

MGMT: The boys of MGMT love Lady Gaga, just like you! Ok, maybe love is a strong word, but they did draw inspiration from her for their second album, which comes out this spring. It even includes a song called “Lady Dada’s Nightmare.” See what they did there? They also tell Spin:

Q: Are you a fan of Lady Gaga?
A: Well, at first I brushed her off as crap. And then I realized that her videos are really creative, and I like that she’s getting more and more bizarre and spreading that to the mainstream. VH1 would say that she’s driven, that she wanted to be as famous as possible. That’s a very different goal from us. But I respect that she’s doing what she wants to do.

I doubt they’ll ever write another song as good as Time to Pretend, but we’ll see! (@spin)

TSWIFT: Celeb Jihad specializes in articles that are totally not true, disguised as articles that totally are true. It’s very confusing until you catch on to what they’re doing.  This particular article is so ridiculous, but I had to share anyway; They accuse Taylor Swift of being a pillow queen? Who would ever believe that?! But there is this ABSOLUTE GEM of a video that Taylor supposedly put up on her MySpace as a goodbye to her alleged lady love. It’s set to Dashboard Confessional, you guys! Please go watch it, and you’ll feel like you’re in the throes of middle school heartache all over again. (@celebjihad)

NYC: If any of our New York autostraddlers are lookin for something to do/an organization to support tonight, you can get your ass over to the Stonewall Inn from 6:30pm to 9pm where you can support the litigators that fight for your rights, Lamdba Legal, and you can hear DJ Carlytron spinning the good stuff. (Suggested $5 donation at the door to raise funds for Lambda Legal.)

Another Day, Another Lesbians Coming Out in Midlife Trend Piece

MIDLIFE LEZZIES: Is there such a thing as “the rise of the midlife lesbian?” The Times Online seems to think so, I guess because it’s novel when a lesbian isn’t a “bolshie 20-year-old with tats and piercings who is declaring she’s a dyke and running off to do queer performance art in Dalston,” as they put it. Meredith Baxter just came out at age 62, and Susie Orbach, the author of Fat is a Feminist Issue, apparently has a new girlfriend at 63; Ellen was 39 when she came out. Am I the only one who didn’t know being a “bolshie dyke” who does queer performance art was a bad thing?

Really — we could do a “2009 in Mid-Life Lesbian Trend Pieces Top Ten” at this point. We began the Trend of the Year in March ’09, when thanks to Cynthia Nixon and Judith Halberstam’s new love, Oprah discovered lesbians (we are not going to make any Oprah and Gayle jokes here, though we REALLY WOULD LIKE TO) in an O Magazine article which focused on women leaving men for women in “the second part of life.” Jezebel noted: “As sensitively as she portrays lesbian couples, [the article’s] approach is still pretty conservative.” Oprah then followed up her magazine piece with an on-air program on the same topic.

The View then tackled “lesbian love” and Joy Behar attempted to be a voice of reason in a conversation dominated by the unbearable Cacaphony of Ignorance (Sherri & Elisabeth). Where was Whoopi that day? We need Whoopi. A few weeks earlier, Tyra brought on Jackie Warner to ask Jackie why so many middle-aged housewives had crushes on her.

In April ’09, following Kelly McGillis coming out (we actually had no idea she wasn’t out previously, we clearly have our heads in the sand/les-mafia), ABC News’s story “Kelly McGillis is the Latest Late-in-Life Lesbian” subjected us to the worst lesbian graphic/rainbow gradient abuse situation of all time:

We have nothing else to say about the article, as that picture pretty much says it all.

What do you think? Is all this hype a result of journalists desperate for a trend piece (we do it too, we’re not judging), actual progress made on the lesbian front or positive increased visibility? If you are a “mid-life lesbian” yourself do you find the term inherently offensive or validating?

So you heard it here fifty-ninth, ladies and gentlemen: lesbians come in all ages, colors, shapes, sizes, species and varying levels of Photoshop Competence. Anyhow Autostraddle CEO Riese’s Mom broke this story in 1996 at their kitchen table.

VOTE: It’s been a wild weekend, guys! Approximately a million of you shared your homo-holiday feelings on the epic Christmakwanza Open Thread, and Associate Editor Sarah Palmer got into law school! More urgently, the 2009 Autostraddle Televisionary Hot Girl Awards are still happening, and some of you still need to vote! There’s some intense campaigning going on for Margaret Cho, Sara Ramirez, and Jennifer Beals – even SheWired is getting in on it (“just saying, Jennifer Beals did nothing wrong to any of you…”) Obvs the other ladies need to mobilize if they want to stand a chance against that trifecta of hotness, and obvs you need to get up in there and VOTE — you have until Wednesday 9AM EST!

EMINEM: Controversial rapper Eminem has agreed to drop certain homophobic lyrics when he performs next year at the Wireless Festival. “David Allison of Outrage! explains that they (the organizers, Eminem and Outrage!) have come to an agreement: “We have a condition that he does not use lyrics that encourage or incite hatred against gay people. He is free to express his views on gay people, as long as he stays off the violence and hatred. He has got plenty of other lyrics to choose from.” This reminds us of that time when Eminem performed with/hugged Elton John and we were really confused about how to feel! Definitely the coolest part of this story is how effective a variety of queer activist groups have been able to be against homophobic performers. “Outrage! is a UK-based queer-rights group that has protested against other homophobic performers including Beenie Man, Elephant Man and Buju Banton. Rights-based protests in the United States have resulted in concert cancellations for serveral anti-gay artists, including Buju Banton, whose messages promote violence and even murder of gay men.” (@carnalnation)

ANGIE: In what appears to be a belated Chrismahanakwanzakah present to all of us, Angelina Jolie has told German magazine Das Neue something vague that may or may not mean she and Brad are in an open relationship. “Jolie said, “Neither Brad nor I have ever claimed that living together means to be chained together. We make sure that we never restrict each other.” (@nypost)

QUEER SPORTS: In sad news, It Takes a Team, the pioneering project of the Women’s Sports Foundation dedicated to challenging homophobia in sports, has been canceled due to budget cuts. Among the project’s basic precepts were that many girls don’t play sports because they are afraid someone will call them a lesbian or they are afraid one of their teammates or a coach might be a lesbian, and that lesbian and bisexual women in sport are discriminated against based on stereotypes and homophobia. But director Pat Griffin says that this isn’t the last word on LGBT issues in sports! She’ll be back! Also, “ the outstanding resources put together by It Takes a Team remain accessible, including information for coaches, athletes, parents, and administrators on dealing with LGBT issues in athletics; legal information; discussion guides and teaching tools; stickers and posters; and more.” (@bitch)

MARRIAGE: A 74-year-old grandmother from Teaneck is leading the gay marriage push in the state Senate. Democratic state senator Loretta Weinberg wants you to feel good about the future of same-sex marriage in New Jersey. Pessimists are saying that New Jersey isn’t going to pass this bill anytime soon, but Weinberg says she’s willing to wait. “Her needle-exchange legislation, drafted to prevent the spread of disease among intravenous drug users, took 15 years to become law. A ban on indoor smoking, 10 years. A reduced blood-alcohol limit to define drunken driving, 10 years. “I’m an eternal optimist,” she says. “If I weren’t, I wouldn’t be in this business.” (@northjersey.com)

GAGA: If you’ve been regretting not spending more time checking out Lady Gaga’s outfits in 2009, it’s not too late! Someone has helpfully compiled Lady Gaga’s 12 Most Interesting Outfits of the year for your viewing pleasure. Also, aw, she says such nice things about us! “Above anything, GaGa has her fans to thank. In a recent interview with MTV, she tells, “First and foremost, my favorite artists of 2009 were my fans. They were my favorites because every song I did, they remade on their own, and every photograph that I took, they took their own version of it.” (@celebritygossipnet)

PUTTING ‘CHRIST’ IN CHRISTMAS: Gallup has the results of their annual holiday-season polling regarding Americans’ religious views. It’s nothing new that the proportion of Americans who identify themselves as Christian has been steadily decreasing over the past few decades: 78% now identify as some form of Christian religion (in 1948 it was 91%), and 13% of Americans claim no religious identity at all. The more interesting result this year is that 29% believe religion “is largely old-fashioned and out of date”, up from 19% of the population ten years ago. So maybe religion should take a cue and update some of its teachings for the new millenium, like um, the ones against gay people!

Hot Lady Friday with Jessica Clark, Jane Lynch, Gaga, Rihanna, Meredith Baxter & Lilo Obvs

GLEE: Ryan Murphy on the future of GLEE and his conviction that The Lynch can do no wrong Obvs – ”Sue will never take a backseat on the show ever because Jane is so fantastic and we write so heavily toward her… people love her. If you thought she was bad in the first 13, she’s doubly wicked and funny in the [rest].” Kristen Chenoweth coming back, 10 Madonna songs:

“I just think you had to fall in love with the characters,” he added. “It’s a very universal idea that everybody feels like an outsider, I think that’s what the show’s about. Everybody feels that way no matter how popular or famous or rich you are.”

Murphy told The Wrap that next season, he’ll be doing “an average of eight to 10” songs per episode. (@thewrap)

GAGA: Lady Gaga is MTV News’s Woman of the Year! We just want you to know that when we finally finish all our year-end lists, that we started them like three weeks ago so we’re not copying: “Gaga’s work shows a sense of performance-art and theater that, these days, is arguably rivaled among major artists only by that of Kanye West, which is why their ultimately cancelled “Fame Kills” co-headlining tour made sense artistically (although many were baffled by it). She makes every public appearance into an event.” (@mtv)

JESSICA CLARK: Smokin’ hot model Jessica Clark has some tips for gifts for the lesbian in your life. Probs you have lots of lesbians in your life, unless you live with polar bears or straight people. HAPPY FRIDAY (@ourscenetv)

MEREDITH BAXTER: Meredith Baxter is gonna write an autobiography. Riese finds this very exciting because she loves reading memoirs or auto-bios by people who went to her boarding school, like Marya Hornbacher’s Wasted, which we also recommend, and which is probs a bit more depressing than Meredith’s book, which I bet will be super good and have lots of Michael J Fox gossip in it. (@cnn)

LOHAN: Lindsay Lohan has had a busy week! At Voyeur with Kevin Connolly on December 16th, where Courtenay Semel was inside, talking smack about Tila Tequila and Casey Johnson (she gives them “five more days”) but not commenting about whether she’d seen LiLo there. On December 17th she was at Brian Wilson’s Hollywood Hills shindig with Leonardo DiCaprio and other famous people.

ELLEN VON UNWERTH: Ellen Von Unwerth (our second-favorite photographer) shoots Lady Gaga (our favorite person) and Cyndi Lauper (our favorite ally) for M.A.C. Viva Glam (our favorite makeup). Like everything Ellen touches, this is sure to be golden:

’09 AWARDS: Best TV Lines of 2009, contributed by hundreds of people on Twitter. (@latimes) BONUS: Many of the quoted shows are Televisionary regulars.

VOGUE: Vogue Lets You Choose Best-Dressed Women of the Decade and I hope you all pick Lady Gaga. (@vogue)

AVATAR: Fox banks on James Cameron’s $380 million Avatar (@washingtonpost), Men snapping up Avatar tickets in pre-sale; women, not so much (@nydailynews)

CLASSIC MOVIES: BBC’s crib sheets on how to pretend you’ve seen 10 classic films, including Autostraddle favorite Alien:

Alien

In a line: Ultimate parasite hitches a lift on a space freighter.
Plot summary: Intergalactic miners are wakened from their hypersleep by a distress signal from a planet they pass. They investigate and find a mummified craft with egg-like structures. One of the miners gets a crab-cum-hand thing attached to his face. It disappears as mysteriously as it attached itself but later, something suddenly bursts through the host’s gut after a meal. It proceeds to eliminate everyone on board with the help of an android crew member.

Buzzword bingo: Hypersleep, parasite, molecular acid, cryogenics.
Key line: “It’s a robot. Ash is a goddamn robot.”
Key scene: Ripley has managed to escape to the shuttle but has forgotten Jonesy the cat. She just has to go back and get it.

TINA FEY: Steve Carell & Tina Fey are attached to star in Mail-Order Groom, a film conceived by 30 Rock writers. (@latimes)

JERSEY SHORE: Teacher who punched Jersey Shore girl apologizes. (@nypost)

Lindsay Lohan’s Latest Sexy Photoshoot Features Threesome, Fire, Hot Girls

LINDSAY LOHAN: First comes Marilyn Monroe, then comes Madonna, then comes a “raunchy new ménage à trois magazine photo shoot inspired by Kate Moss and Johnny Depp’s fiery relationship” for MUSE magazine. I actually thought at first the cover [right] might be a parody. I don’t like it, though it’s basically guaranteed a spot on next year’s Hot 100. I also thought that Lindsay was shooting a racy new ménage à trois magazine photo shoot for Purple Magazine with Terry Richardson this month, which further goes to show that Winter 2009 is Threesome Season. Also, the article claims Lindsay has been “linked to a string of men” since her breakup with Samantha Ronson WHICH CANNOT POSSIBLY BE TRUE BECAUSE LINDSAY + SAM = FOREVER END OF STORY.

“The three of them were very sensual and provocative, but Lindsay understands this piece was created not for any sensational value other than artistic integrity,” Yu Tsai said. “There was never a discussion about pushing the boundaries. She was totally comfortable with the nudity as long as it had artistic integrity … When you see her nipple, it just happened in the moment. She was playing the role of Kate Moss — you’re at a party and you are with a guy you really love and another girl.” It’s a good thing LiLo is such a good actress and can pretend to be in love with someone other than her ONE TRUE LOVE.

VENICE: First episode is UP UP UP! Queerty asks: What Soap Opera (and The Hills) Stereotypes Will Lez Series Venice Adopt?

GAGA: Shady lady: The truth about pop’s Lady Gaga. The reporter from the Times Online seems sort of aloof about spending time with our favorite human being. Clearly today’s theme is “no one understands our favorite bisexual lady idols but us.”

“Gaga insists on explaining the concept of her show, which is on the wildly original theme of evolution. “It’s part pop show, part performance art, part fashion installation. It came about because as an artist, as a writer, as a woman, I feel I’ve evolved so much.” But then she goes on: “My evolution is from the beginning of time, so I start as a cell [she shows me a costume like a geodesic dome], and then I become a vertebrate, and then I become a full animal, and there’s the birth of the economy, and trade and war, and then it’s the Apocalypse.” (@timesonline)

MEREDITH BAXTER: Ah yes, we cannot possibly have a good coming out story without its requisite companion piece, the “women coming out in mid-life” trend piece. Oprah did it like three times already this year, and now The Washington Post is cashing in:

“It’s extremely common,” “sexual identity researcher Lisa Diamond says. “The standard narrative that folks are used to hearing — if you have same-sex attraction, you got it when you were 9 and either acted on it or repressed it — is an oversimplification.”Some women will say, ‘I had attractions to friends over the years,’ but not necessarily interpret that as homosexuality.” When it finally dawns on those women, Diamond says, “It’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, that’s what that is!'”

In fact, she says, sexual desire isn’t always the driving force for women moving from heterosexuality to homosexuality. “Later-life transitions are often tied to a strong emotional bond,” she says. Women may feel “I love my friend so much, it makes me wonder what’s the difference between this and romantic love.”

Groan.

LESBIANS LOVE SEA MAMMALS: The New York Times does a semi-fascinating profile on Ryan Seacrest [who’s “peculiar ambition and accomplishment is to be both everywhere and nowhere”] you might genuinely find moderately interesting. “He’s like a lifeguard, or a doorman, always present, never obtrusive.” (@nytimes style)

GIRL ‘ZINES: In her new book, Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism, feminist author and women and gender studies professor Alison Piepmeier tackles the historical significance of women and do-it-yourself publishing. Zines, Piepmeier explains, are much more than ’90s riot grrl staples. MUST OWN RIGHT NOW! (@afterellen)

SCRUNCHIE THIS: “Ron Livingston, who ruined Sex and the City for nearly a season by playing whiny Jack Berger, is suing an anonymous Wikipedia author who keeps updating Livingston’s stub to say he’s not only A Gay, but A Gay who is dating someone named Lee Dennison.” While I defo agree that we need some repercussion for anonymous online people who talk smack, this seems kinda REDIC, and besides, “courts have stopped ruling that being called gay — whether you are or are not — is defamation.” GAY MEANS HAPPY, PEOPLE, GAY MEANS HAPPY! (@queerty)

Meredith Baxter Comes Out: Family Ties’ Mama Keaton is a Lesbian!

Meredith Baxter with her kids and partner Nancy Locke

MEREDITH BAXTER COMES OUT: Well, Meredith Baxter is our kind of TV Mom! We spotted Meredith Baxter on the Sweet Caribbean Cruise last month but didn’t know what to make of it… and now we do! Because Meredith Baxter came out today!

She first came to mainstream popularity as the mom in the 80’s sitcom Family Ties. Today, she finally reveals to the Advocate that she started dating women 7 years ago after three marriages and five children. She attributes her decision to publicly come out after reports of her on the Sweet Cruise started making the gossip rounds.

She says of her many difficult years before coming out, “I was never comfortable with myself… that doesn’t mean I was questioning.” Interestingly, she had a short-term affair with a woman in 1996, thought nothing of it and later married a man for a third time, go figure. Her five children were extremely open & accepting as her 25 year-old son Peter told People Magazine, “I just couldn’t stop smiling because she finally figured it out.”

When asked why she didn’t come out during Prop 8 (as Wanda Sykes did), she says “that would have seemed opportunistic. I may be wrong, but that’s where I was at that point.”

How does this affect your life? Meredith Baxter will also be a special guest star on season 2 of the (actually good) lesbian web-series We Have To Stop Now, starring out lesbians Jill Bennett & Cathy DeBuono. After completing her scenes in LA, she decided to join the cast & crew on board the lesbian vessel through a hurricane. We were on set with Jill & Cathy during the cruise and promised you an in depth follow-up interview and that is coming your way very soon! Check out the trailer for the smokin’ hot second season of We Have To Stop Now and get a glimpse of Meredith in action:

[Gigantic Possible Way Too Tangental or Inappropriate Sidenote from Editor-in-Chief Riese: Although I was raised by liberal hippie extremists in a man-made mud-shelter and had to entertain myself with stick-puppets and growing my own tomatos rather than watching television (the evil box) and therefore was not allowed to watch Family Ties EVER, I did eventually flee the organic celery farm for boarding school at Interlochen Arts Academy, where the name “Meredith Baxter” was often lauded in giant glass cases as an alumni success story. So many of my artistic peers in our wooded enclave forbidden to interact with the opposite sex after 10pm had their first lesbian experiences in the bunk-beds of Mozart/Beethoven, Upper Brahms and Lower Brahms [*cough*] (Yes, our dorms were named after great composers) but most of these girls were pretty sure it didn’t necessarily mean we were gay, just you know, restless and open-minded! Anyhow, probs not, as Meredith did not attend IAA during the bisexual chic 90’s. I’m just excited any time someone from my high school turns out to be a lez b/c perhaps something was in the water.]

ANYONE BUT ME: Just like us, Zachary Quinto is ADDICTED TO ANYONE BUT ME! Check out his confessional:

Don’t forget the season premiere of Anyone But Me drops on December 15th. Check out Autostraddle’s interview & photoshoot with smokin’ hot co-stars Nicole Pacent & Rachael Hip-Flores and head writer (and former L Word scribe) Susan Miller.

NO PANTS DANCE-OFF: We recapped the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show last night! Did you watch it? Now you can watch it with us!

GLAMBERT: We also declared Adam Lambert as Autostraddle’s Sexiest Man of 2009 because Robin did an AMAZING photoshoot with him, and he also visited Ellen yesterday – worlds of awesome did indeed collide! You can catch that video of him on Ellen at the end of our Sexiest Man Alive Post.

WEDDINGS: This photographer designed this photoshoot as a manifestation of her imaginative feelings following the defeat of Prop 8. It’s hot gender bending, pretty photos and political activism all at once! So check out Ara Lucia’s Victorian wedding photos!