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!).
Leigh Combs
As a host and producer of Fresh Fruit, the nation’s longest-running queer radio program, Minnesota resident Leigh Combs gives a pretty fresh interview. “We have like fourteen languages spoken here, and I think of Queer as one of those languages,” says Combs of KFAI, the community radio station that broadcasts her show. Since 1978, Fresh Fruit has been an on-air forum for discussion of all things LGBT-related, from local stories to international news to more universal issues of identity and social justice. “I’ve been able to interview and talk to some amazing people,” says Combs. “I love the interview. It’s like this instant connection. You get right to the details.” When she’s not streaming live, Combs runs Family & Children’s Service, an LGBT youth abuse intervention program, and is on the board of Rainbow Families, an LGBT advocacy group in Minnesota. –CL
In no particular order…
