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!).
Grace Moon
OurChart began as a storyline on Showtime’s The L Word, and has rocketed into reality as an online social networking site for lesbians at OurChart.com. As managing editor, Grace Moon oversees content, including a recent slideshow featuring the work of dyke photographers. “There really is a sense of community and conversation,” she says of the site. “This is a place where the community can come together.” Moon has an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and is also the founder of Velvetpark, a lushly visual arts-and-culture online magazine for lesbians. In 2004, when Moon applied for the trademark “Velvetpark: Dyke Culture in Bloom,” the request was denied; the U.S. Trademark and Patent office found the word “dyke” to be “immoral and scandalous.” With a push from Moon, the government agency eventually changed its position, accepting the trademark in 2006. –LL
In no particular order…
