Recently in Lesbian Category

I love writing about French tennis star Amelie Mauresmo because she is the pro game's most high-profile lesbian since Martina Navratilova and has played just about her entire career out and proud. She's a former number one player who's won Wimbledon and the Australian Open but hit hard times after her career year in 2006.

On Sunday, Amelie won her first tournament in two years when she beat Russian player Elena Dementieva in the finals of a tournament in Paris 7-6 (7), 2-6, 6-4. She last won a tournament in Feb. 2007 in Antwerp, Belgium.

Congrats to Amelie!!!

Sealed with a kiss.

The folks at ABC sent me these two images from a landmark storyline on "All My Children" featuring daytime television's first lesbian wedding between Bianca Montgomery (Eden Riegel) and Reese Williams (Tamara Braun). Bianca's mother is the one and ionly Erica Kane who is played by the legendary Susan Lucci.

The wedding will begin on today's episide and continues on Monday.

Cherry Jones, the Tony Award winning actress who is currently playing the President of the United States on "24," was asked about gay marriage and her relationship with actress Sarah Paulson with whom she has been with for five years.

On Prop. 8: "i hope it will be repleased because I don't think the majority should be allowed to take away the rights of the minority. I originally wanted the movement to be about civil unions, because to me, "marriage" is more of a religious bond and civil union is about the state. But I now appreciate that they went for broke, and I do believe that in another four or five years, the majority of those who voted for Prop. 8 will be ashamed of themselves."

Would she ever want marriage with Paulson who she met on the set of the film "Swimmers"?

"Never," she said. "I'm not the marrying type. I was in an 18-year relationship (with architect Mary O'Connor) and we discussed it, but it wasn;t something we felt we needed to do. And in my current relationship with Sarah, we feel similarly about it."

Melissa Etheridge and her wife Tammy Lynn appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" Friday from their home office to talk about their frustrations concerning the passage of Proposition 8. Melissa said Election Day was bittersweet for her. "We were celebrating Obama's victory. We were so happy for our nation moving forward, and yet we felt this pull backward. We felt a kick in the gut."
Melissa said she thinks part of the reason Proposition 8 passed was that the wording on the ballot was confusing. "If you vote yes, it means no, [you don't want gay marriage to be legal]. If you vote no, it means yes, [you want gay marriage to be legal]. It was very complicated."

The passage of Proposition 8 also brings up complex issues about the separation of church and state, Melissa said. Some people believe marriage is about religion, whereas she believes it's about civil rights. "We are a country that allows all religious freedoms. It's wonderful," Mellissa told Oprah. "But, I [should] still get to have the same rights as you do."

Since the California Supreme Court ruled that gay citizens should be allowed to marry in May 2008, more than 18,000 same-sex couples have tied the knot. What will happen to newlywed couples like Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, now that Proposition 8 has passed?

Melissa said their fate is still undecided. "What I've heard is the courts are trying to decide [if] this nullifies those [18,000] marriages or if they can still go forward," she says. "If you nullify it, just taking rights away from people blows my mind. But if you okay it, then Ellen and Portia can be married, but Tammy and I can't? What sense does that make?"

Here's some video of the appearance:

Oftentimes, Tammy says people get hung up on the word "marriage" when discussing gay couples. "I would like to see more people looking at just making sure we all have the same rights. Who cares what kind of fistful of letters you want to call your relationship?"

Currently, Melissa and Tammy are bound by a civil union, which was made legal by former California Governor Gray Davis. They may be recognized as domestic partners, but Melissa says this classification does not guarantee them the same rights as married couples. For instance, Melissa says they can't file the same income tax return. "There's a lot of things people take for granted in a marriage--[like] combining two incomes into a household," she said.

Despite this setback, Melissa remains hopeful. She says the fight for same-sex marriage has gone beyond the gay community, and straight people are starting to stand up for gay rights as well. "There are people really coming out because they're starting to understand that what you do to someone else, you do to yourself," she says. "None of us can be free unless all of us are free."

Melissa said she was also inspired by the unity she saw on Election Day. "We feel this feeling of unity coming over not only just our country ... this feeling of oneness, this feeling of understanding," she says. "I feel you all know we can't be left behind. There's no more 'us' and 'them.' There's no more, 'We get these rights, but they don't.' That's last century--we're moving on."

"I feel that hope too," Oprah said. "You said it as beautifully as could be said."

Recap courtesy of Oprah.com.

Melissa Etheridge has written a blistering piece for the site The Daily Beast expressing her outrage over the passage of Proposition 8 by California voters. Here it is, in its entirety...

Okay. So Prop 8 passed. Alright, I get it. 51% of you think that I am a second class citizen. Alright then. So my wife, uh I mean, roommate? Girlfriend? Special lady friend? You are gonna have to help me here because I am not sure what to call her now. Anyways, she and I are not allowed the same right under the state constitution as any other citizen. Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books.

Okay, cool I don't mean to get too personal here but there is a lot I can do with the extra half a million dollars that I will be keeping instead of handing it over to the state of California. Oh, and I am sure Ellen will be a little excited to keep her bazillion bucks that she pays in taxes too. Wow, come to think of it, there are quite a few of us fortunate gay folks that will be having some extra cash this year. What recession? We're gay! I am sure there will be a little box on the tax forms now single, married, divorced, gay, check here if you are gay, yeah, that's not so bad. Of course all of the waiters and hairdressers and UPS workers and gym teachers and such, they won't have to pay their taxes either.

Gay people are born everyday. You will never legislate that away.

Oh and too bad California, I know you were looking forward to the revenue from all of those extra marriages. I guess you will have to find some other way to get out of the budget trouble you are in.

...Really?

When did it become okay to legislate morality? I try to envision someone reading that legislation "eliminates the right" and then clicking yes. What goes through their mind? Was it the frightening commercial where the little girl comes home and says, "Hi mom, we learned about gays in class today" and then the mother gets that awful worried look and the scary music plays? Do they not know anyone who is gay? If they do, can they look them in the face and say "I believe you do not deserve the same rights as me"? Do they think that their children will never encounter a gay person? Do they think they will never have to explain the 20% of us who are gay and living and working side by side with all the citizens of California?

I got news for them, someday your child is going to come home and ask you what a gay person is. Gay people are born everyday. You will never legislate that away.
I know when I grew up gay was a bad word. Homo, lezzie, faggot, dyke. Ignorance and fear ruled the day. There were so many "thems" back then. The blacks, the poor ... you know, "them". Then there was the immigrants. "Them." Now the them is me.

I tell myself to take a breath, okay take another one, one of the thems made it to the top. Obama has been elected president. This crazy fearful insanity will end soon. This great state and this great country of ours will finally come to the understanding that there is no "them". We are one. We are united. What you do to someone else you do to yourself. That "judge not, lest ye yourself be judged" are truthful words and not Christian rhetoric.

Today the gay citizenry of this state will pick themselves up and dust themselves off and do what we have been doing for years. We will get back into it. We love this state, we love this country and we are not going to leave it. Even though we could be married in Mass. or Conn, Canada, Holland, Spain and a handful of other countries, this is our home. This is where we work and play and raise our families. We will not rest until we have the full rights of any other citizen. It is that simple, no fearful vote will ever stop us, that is not the American way.

Come to think of it, I should get a federal tax break too...

This is unelievable. Just when the lesbian storyline on "Grey's Anatomy" between Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and Dr. Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith) was taking off, Entertainment Weekly has broken the news that Smith will be gone from the show by the next episode.

Here's some of what Smith told EW's Michael Ausiello: "I was very excited when they told me that Erica and Callie were going to have this relationship. And I really hoped we were going to show what happens when two women fall in love and that they were going to treat it like any heterosexual couple on TV. And so I was surprised and disappointed when they just suddenly told me that they couldn't write for my character anymore."

I found out in mid-September soon after shooting the monologue that aired last week where Erica has the revelation that she's gay. They even came down and told me it was a great scene -- one of the best they ever shot on the show. So I was really, really shocked. I was floored when they told me [I was being let go]. It was the last thing I expected. In fact, when they told me I asked, "When is this happening?" And they said, "The [next episode] is your last," which is the one that airs this Thursday. So it was very sudden.
EW reports that the decision seemed to be ABC's and not so much that of show creator and executive producer Shondra Rhimes. It would be very surprising if that network got cold feet about the storyline in light of the "Brothers & Sisters" same sex storyline with Kevin and Scotty and the gay characters on "Ugly Betty."

Here's what Rhimes had to say in a statement: "Brooke Smith was obviously not fired for playing a lesbian. Clearly it's not an issue as we have a lesbian character on the show - Calliope Torres. Sara Ramirez is an incredible comedic and dramatic actress and we wanted to be able to play up her magic. Unfortunately, we did not find that the magic and chemistry with Brooke's character would sustain in the long run. The impact of the Callie/Erica relationship will be felt and played out in a story for Callie. I believe it belittles the relationship to simply replace Erica with 'another lesbian.' If you'll remember, Cristina mourned the loss of Burke for a full season."

Whether its live or in print, Kate Clinton is one of the smartest and funniest women on the planet. And she's smart funny which makes it all the more delicious. Here is an excerpt from a column she posted on The Bilerico Project on Friday:

Despite much good-natured pressure, my partner of twenty years and I have not gotten married. If we ever do marry, I know I will want an old fashioned wedding. Really old fashioned. When I get married, I want a country.

I am the Mr. Big of gay marriage. That said, I completely support the freedom to marry for all gay people. I believe my friends when they tell me how surprised they are at the transformational power of declaring their love before family and friends. I love hearing their stories.

I hate hearing their stories of the on-the-ground, hand-to-hand combat against anti-gay ballot initiatives in Florida, Arizona [again], and California.

In California, two newly wed lesbian friends called me as they drove to yet another "No on 8" rally through a thicket of "Yes on 8" yard signs. The friend who was driving was distraught because her usually serene partner who was having a homicidal, screaming jag triggered by all the Yes signage. She asked me to talk her down. I suggested she drive on the lawns and take out some signs.

In this financial climate, in California alone, sixty million dollars is being spent for and against the basic human rights of gay people. You would think the attitude would be, "Oh for heaven's sake, it's almost the end of the world, let the gay people get married."

If we defeat Prop Hate, I say we sue our adversaries for anti-gay harassment and to recoup our money. We can use the money to continue to provide for homeless LGBT youth, HIV AIDS support, and care for our elder gays.

To read the rest of Kate Clinton's column, go to The Bilerico Project.

Earlier posts:
-- Kate Clinton's Tastes...
-- Kate Clinton's Stand-up Act to Hit DVD...

All Martina Navratilova wanted was to get duel citizenship so she could travel easily between the United States - where she defected to 33 years ago - and the Czech Republic where she was born.

But this led to a flood of erroneous stories published in recent weeks that the nine-time Wimbledon champion was leaving the U.S. in disgust over the policies of the Bush administration.

"Somehow, out came these reports that I was going to denounce my citizenship," Martina told me this week. "I never said those things and I don't know how it got to that point. Next thing I know, I read that I'm leaving America. It's just astonishing and insulting."

The 51-year-old athlete, who retired from pro tennis after winning the mixed doubles title at the U.S. Open in 2006, has been a U.S. citizen since 1981. Martina fled the then-communist Czechoslovakia in 1975 in a highly-publicized defection that was of great risk to her at the time. She was just 18 and didn't know if she'd ever see her family again.

That's why the false stories have cut so deep.

"This goes to the core of who I am and why I'm here," she said. "I'm very loyal and very grateful. This is my home and l've lived her for over 30 years. To have this kind of stuff said is really hurtful and disappointing. I'd like to get to the bottom of it."

"Millions of Americans have duel citizenship and I get roasted for it," Martina added. "I don't think anything less of America. But I'm proud of where I came from. When it was communist I wasn't proud of the government. Now it's a good place to be. There's nothing to be embarassed about."

The reasons for obtaining duel citizenship were actually quite simple: "It was practical because I travel a lot and I'm doing some business in the Czech Republic and have been on a monthly basis for a few years and my mom was sick."

Martina has long been something of a lightening rod for criticism because of her unfailingly outspoken nature. I reminded her of the time she was critical of the Bush administration while being interviewed by Connie Chung on CNN several years back. Chung shockingly wondered aloud why Martina just didn't go back to the Czech Republic if she didn't like the way things were in the U.S.

Martina now says of the incident: "I wondered, so if (Connie Chung) didn't agree with something she should go back to China? I thought the whole point of democracy is to be able to disagree with the govenment. That's the beauty of America."

As a major tennis fan, I've followed Martina's career for many years and she has always come across as incredibly partriotic, proudly played for the U.S. in the Fed Cup international team competition (the picture above is from the 1986 Fed Cup when the U.S., led by Martina and Chris Evert, defeated Czechoslovakia in Prague) as well as in the Olympic Games. But there is one moment from her career that I will never forget: she had just lost to Monica Seles in the finals of the 1991 U.S. Open and the crowd gave her one of the most rapturous ovations that I can ever remember.

Martina tearfully made some remarks then wrapped up her speech by saying: "I'm so damned proud to be an American."

That pretty much says it all.

Got the chance to talk to director Kimberly Peirce last week about her new movie "Stop-Loss" starring Ryan Phillippe (pictured with the director, above), Abbie Cornish, Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, at the movie's premiere.

It's her first film since 1999's "Boys Don't Cry." It's release date on Friday is especially timely with the Iraq war at the five-year milestone this month and the death toll of U.S. soldiers reaching at least 4,000 this week. Her movie is about the soldiers who are forced into additional tours of duty and the toll the war is taking on their lives back home.

Q. Why did you wait almost 10 years to do another film?
A. "I was looking for something that really moved me and broke my heart and spoke to me in the deepest possible way. "Boys" was a dream come true, it is something that I will think about my entire life - it was about gender, sexuality, my friends, myself, my family. Once you have an experience that satisfying, that's what you want to put your whole life towards. When 9-11 happened and I saw the towers fall - I had been living there 13 years - and my country went to war, I knew I needed to make a movie about the soldiers: who they were, why they were signing up, what their experience in combat was and upon coming home. Not long after that, my baby brother signed up so we were a military family. We had a gandfather fight in WWII and we were deep in it. I can't think of anything that I would be prouder to have made in these last couple of years. I was just so excited to be able to talk to the real soldiers. I love to do things that I both have a sense of, but that I come to understand better and I now understand our soldiers and the experiences they've had fighting, what comraderie means to them and what it means for them to come home and I want everybody to understand that. It's the most important issue I see facing our country."

Q. How do you think the movie will be received?
A. "I've been to 22 cities in America and people are loving the movie and I think the reason is, look at the cast: it's all young guys who are totally reflective of real soldiers - they studied with real Iraq vets, they studied with Marines - they're just a young group of good looking charismatic guys. They're a lot like the American soldiers that I interviewed."

Q. How was it working with Ryan Phillippe?
A. "Ryan was fantastic. He came in, he had that gorgeous deep voice, he's got that cleft chin. He's just that all-American boy. In addition to being good looking, he;s also just incredibly mature and incredibly sensitive. He's a great father and I think he brings that into the role because he's the brother of the guys but he's also really the father of the guys. That's really what the movie's about - the comraderie between soldiers when they're over there in combat. All that matters is keeping alive the soldier to your left, the soldier to your right and bringing them home."

Jodie Foster gave a really moving and surprisingly candid speech when she received the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at the 16th annual Women in Entertainment Breakfast on Tuesday.

Toward the end of her remarks, Jodie thanked those nearest and dearest to her. Among them was "my beautiful Cydney who sticks with me through all the rotten and the bliss."

Since she has always been so intensely private, I was surprised at the public acknowledgement of who I presume is Cydney Bernard, the woman who is widely reported to be her life partner.

Lansing, who presented Jodie with the award before a crowd that included Queen Latifah and John Travolta, said of the actress-director: "Jodie Foster leads her life with dignity - she's her own person, she doesn't follow the herd. She's an original."

The two-time Oscar winner was funny and heart-warming during the speech, which brought some in attendance at the Beverly Hills Hotel to tears: "I feel fragile...unsure, struggling to figure it all out, trying to get there even though I'm not sure where there is," she said. "I've been working in this business for 42 years and there's no way you can do that and not be as nutty as a fruitcake."

Jodie and I had a light-hearted chat prior to the breakfast. I told her that just about everyone was either gushing about her or wanted to meet her.

"Really?" she said, smiling. "I think it's a lie. I think they're just saying that because I'm here."

I wondered if she ever gets tired of being feted since she's got a boatload of awards aleady.

"Well yeah, I get tired of getting dressed up," she admitted. "If I could get feted in my pajamas, I'd be there, I'd be like at the opening of a doorknob."

Is Jodie, who turned 45 last month, going to do more movies since she seems to do, at most, one a year? "One movie a year is really way too much even honestly. I did two movies in a year...and it almost set me over the edge."

She had a rare box office misfire this fall with "The Brave One" which opened at number one but went on to gross just under $37 million domestically. She's unfazed: "You make movies for the right reasons, hopefully, and that's a movie that I'm probably more proud of than anything I've done in many, many, many years. Some movies aren't for everybody."

Jodie, the mother of two children, told me that she has learned to juggle professional commitments with family.

"The one way that I've been able to make sense of it is to say that my job is something I do from 9 in the morning to 6 at night or whatever it is and my life starts after that," she said. "I've been able to compartmentalize and keep them separate. There are different parts to what I do for a living and part of what I do for a living is doing things like this [breakfast], part of it is being on a movie set at 4 in the morning, freezing cold and with a gun in my hand. Part of it is the thinking stuff. But when I get home, it's a different world."

When Martina Navratilova rang me up before lunch today, it was to talk about her new role as an ambassador for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and I will post her comments about that tomorrow on this site and in my LA Daily News print column later this week.

First, I want to share the part of our conversation that focused on her coming out a lesbian in the late 70s and what she went through as she battled America's sweetheart Chris Evert on tennis courts around the world for the sports biggest titles. While news of a female athlete coming out would barely raise an eyebrow these days, back then, it was a very big deal and Martina displayed enormous courage in doing so.

"I don't know one person who's come out who wants to go back in," Martina said. "It was rough back then. It was rough when I walked on court, people would be clapping when Chris [Evert] or Steffi [Graf] were announced. I'd come out and some people wouldn't clap. Imagine if they didn't clap for Roger Federer if he was gay. He's the best tennis player in the world. So that hurt. To me, my sexuality should be irrelevant, it's not anything to be ashamed of. I was upset that people would think it was a negative and judge me just on that."

While Evert ruled the game for the second half of the 70s, Martina supplanted her from the top in 1982. They continued to battle for dominance but for a good three years, Martina basically owned Chris at one point beating her 13 times in a row. As Evert began to have some wins again - most notably in the 1985 and 1986 French Open finals against Martina - and Steffi Graf took over the top ranking in 1987, the public saw past Martina's dominance and began to recognize her for who she was.

BTW: Martina and Chris both ended up winning 18 Grand Slam titles but Navratilova had a slight edge in their 80-match rivalry which ended in 1988 at 43-37.

I mentioned to Martina that I thought a real breakthrough for her with the public was after the 1991 U.S. Open final which she lost to Monica Seles. The crowd just wouldn't stop clapping, finally bringing Martina to tears. It was a wonderful moment for me as a tennis fan watching on TV at home and I loved how she was being showered with affection for being a champion but for also being an honest and brave human being.

"They got me," she says. "First they liked me, then I was the big brute beating our Chrissie. Then in 1991, they just respected me and they got me. They realized I was real and said what I thought and tried to do it in the best way possible."

I commented to Martina (pictured after one of her nine Wimbledon singles wins) that she has had an enormous impact on untold numbers of gay and lesbian people who felt they would never be embraced if they did not remain in the closet or be able to make their dreams come true as an openly gay person.

I am one of them.

She seems to understand this and I'm so glad: "Probably my biggest accomplishment is changing those people on the fence. The thing I'm happiest about is the kids that didn't feel alone, who wrote me letters and said I helped give them the strength to be who they are."