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
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Hats off to the 100 Women We Love, class of 2008 (in no particular order, ’cause we love ’em all!).
Yetta Kurland
For the past 20 years, civil rights attorney Yetta Kurland has fought for the rights of New York City’s underrepresented groups. Her firm, Kurland and Associates, specializes in family law, immigration, and issues of unlawful discrimination. But Kurland is just getting started; she recently announced her plans to run for City Council in the upcoming election. Says Kurland, “I’m honored to be able to continue representing my community in a positive light, celebrating its rich history of diversity in the political process.” Let’s hear it for Yetta Kurland ‘09! -MF
In no particular order…
