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!).
Jennifer Howd
When award-winning writer, post-production and motion graphics producer Jennifer Howd co-founded Punkmouse, a queer media and entertainment group, she didn’t know many other queer people in the business. So in 2006, she co-founded Q-Me Con (Queer Media and Entertainment Conference), a networking summit for LGBT media professionals in New York City. Within two years, the popular event became an annual women-in-media conference. “In New York, we really don’t have a hub dedicated solely to women,” she says. She was surprised to learn that many powerful and successful women in the business didn’t know one another. Q-Me Con has provided a way for them to connect—and tell accurate stories that can change minds. “It really boils down to getting ourselves seen,” Howd says. And who better to tell the queer story than queers themselves? “I don’t want white, straight men deciding what represents me. Do you?” –LL
In no particular order…
