the advocate interview

Tabatha Coffey, out host of Tabatha’s Salon Takeover, combs over what you won’t read in her empowering new memoir, It’s Not Really About the Hair. Coffey notes that the memoir "probably isn’t the book that anyone expected me to write, but I was inspired by the emotional e-mails I get from fans.” It also explores Coffey’s struggle between protecting her nonconformist lesbian identity and honoring her responsibility to the LGBT community.

Meghan Stabler is a business executive, national LGBT activist, transsexual woman, and transgender advocate.  She has served on the Human Rights Campaign’s Board of Directors since 2008 and is currently Senior Director and Executive Advisor at CA Technologies, a New York-based multi-billion-dollar IT management software and solutions company. Stabler shares with dot429 her journey of transition, its impact on her career, and the work she has done towards establishing equality in the corporate workplace.

"Anyone who says that I’m not genuine is not interested in overcoming this fight," Gaga tells the Advocate in a personal new interview. The Advocate spoke to the Monster Queen about her commitment to her LGBT community, activism, Born This Way, and everything that makes the most eye-catching performer in music today who she is.

In a new interview in The Advocate, Gossip front woman Beth Ditto opens up about her femme identity, her poverty-stricken upbringing, and what being queer means to her.

Real life lesbian Heather Matarazzo talks L Word fans hating her character, realizing she was gay at the age of 11, and her new movie with Jennifer Coolidge in this awesome Advocate interview.

Actress Meredith Baxter came out publicly in November of 2009 in an interview with the Advocate, People and on The Today Show. Recently she’s been making the rounds at The Today Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show, among others, to discuss her memoir Untied. The beloved TV star of shows including Bridget Loves Bernie, Family and Family Ties gave an exclusive to The Advocate in which she chats about the allegations of abuse at the hands of her ex husband David Birney, coming out as a lesbian late in life and what it’s like to have found the love of her life.

Armed with a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and earning accolades as host of "The Mo'Nique Show," the six-time Oscar nominated "Precious" star is on top of the world. In a recent interview with the Advocate, the witty, charming and always hysterical Mo'Nique dishes on equality, being a phone sex operator and her secret lesbian crush. "I know a lot of folks that go to church and are gay. I tell them, 'God don't make no mistakes, baby."

Molly Ringwald is still pretty in pink and the former teen queen and now author shares her life's lessons in a new interview. The Advocate chatted with the 80's icon about Prop 8,  playing lesbian, being kicked off "The Facts of Life" and her love for gays. The "Sixteen Candles" actress has a new lifestyle guide, "Getting the Pretty Back: Friendship, Family and Finding the Perfect Lipstick." Have you ever played a lesbian character? "No, I never have! I would be totally open to it..."

A lesbian trying to enter Dollywood's Splash Country amusement park was ordered by a host at the front gate to turn her shirt, which said "Marriage Is So Gay," inside out or be denied entrance to the park. Olivier Odom and Jennifer Tipton brought a friend's children to the theme park, but were stopped at the entrance when a gatekeeper saw Odom's shirt. Sales of the shirt raise money and awareness for marriage equality. Dolly Parton has not comment on the incident, but has been a longtime advocate for equality. In a recent interview with the gay newspaper Dallas Voice, she talked about her LGBT fans. "I have always loved my gay fans," she said.

While appearing on CNN’s American Morning to promote the DVD release of her TV movie Prayers for Bobby, Sigourney Weaver got choked up discussing her performance as Mary Griffith, the homophobic mom who became a gay rights crusader after her son took his own life.

Although White House press secretary Jay Carney said earlier this week that he does not anticipate any revelatory statement from President Barack Obama on his gay marriage position when he takes the stage at an LGBT fund-raiser in New York this evening, a group of Democratic senators is now urging the president to support marriage equality. “President Obama has taken important steps to help the LGBT community, and I urge him to join me and millions of other Americans in supporting equal marriage rights for same-sex couples,” said Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, sponsor of the Student Non-Discrimination Act. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, lead sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, said, “I support marriage equality — this is an issue of fundamental fairness. I hope that President Obama will endorse that view and voice his support for equality for all.”

Maryland senators voted on Monday to recommit the Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act to committee, effectively killing any prospects for the bill to pass this session, which ends at midnight. Shortly before 1 p.m. on the last day of session, senators voted 27 to 20 to recommit the bill to the judicial proceedings committee, which had advanced the measure by a 7 to 4 vote on Saturday. The move left no time to resurrect the bill in 2011.

You’re likely familiar with actress Carlease Burke, if not by name, then from her work in blockbuster films such as Get Shorty and In Her Shoes and television hits including Heroes and Grey’s Anatomy. Her latest role as Roberta, a foulmouthed and eccentric lesbian on Showtime’s celebrated Shameless is the highlight of her accomplished career, according to Burke, when she recently spoke to the Advocate’s Jeffrey Hartinger.