100 WOMEN WE LOVE 2008
Lily Tomlin’s extraordinary career as a funny lady bloomed on the TV show Laugh-In in 1969, the year of the Stonewall rebellion. Fittingly, she has woven feminism and LGBT life into her characters—the not-so-hardworking phone operator Ernestine, Violet Newstead in 9 to 5 and the numerous personas populating The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, the one-woman play written by Tomlin’s partner Jane Wagner, for which Tomlin won a Tony Award. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for her turn as Linnea Reese in Robert Altman’s Nashville, played recurring roles on TV shows from Murphy Brown to The West Wing, and has won six Emmys, a Grammy, and a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1977. Tomlin, who has called Wagner the most influential person in her life and career, narrated 1995’s landmark LGBT documentary The Celluloid Closet. –KL
In no particular order…
Hats off to the 100 Women We Love, class of 2008 (in no particular order, ’cause we love ’em all!).
Beth Greenfield
Writer and editor Beth Greenfield specializes in both queer culture and travel writing. For the past five years, she has helmed the Gay & Lesbian section of Time Out New York, a mainstream events magazine, where she began as a features editor. Greenfield also writes for The New York Times, the guidebook publisher Lonely Planet, and is currently penning a memoir slated for 2010 publication. Greenfield excels in her unique position of queer editor at a mainstream magazine, but her work is not without its challenges. “The most challenging thing about working for mainstream publications is a general sexism that sometimes guides editorial decisions. I always speak my mind, but when I do I worry that people’s eyes will roll as they think, ‘ugh, here comes that righteous lesbian again!’” she admits. “But then I remember that one of the most important things in life is speaking up for what you believe in.” -KL
In no particular order…
