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!).
Erin Davies
Erin Davies drives Fagbug, the vandalized VW she turned into a vehicle of inspiration and anti-homophobia education. It started when Davies found that “fAg” and “u r gay” had been scrawled across her car (homophobic vandals aren’t really known for good grammar). When she parked the car at Sage Graduate School in Albany, a debate ensued, spurring the cross-country trip that transformed the bug into an agent for change. Davies chronicles the voyage in her forthcoming documentary and book; in the meantime Davies keeps us up to date with her blog. Davies received the Most Outstanding Individual award at the July 2007 Vancouver Pride Parade, and supports her project with sponsorship from VW of America. “The world did a very good job of taking care of me,” she says. –JB
In no particular order…
