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!).
Heather Martin
Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth (LIGALY) Development Coordinator Heather Martin is making things happen behind the scenes. As half of the two-person team behind the non-profit organization, she raised over $80,000 at last year’s Equality Awards Gala, which will help LIGALY continue to provide education, advocacy and social support services to Long Island’s LGBT youth. “I think it’s important for LGBT people to find strength in each other and build common ground,” says Martin, “because little is accomplished without unity.” Martin is currently planning On The Bay, a big Hamptons fundraiser scheduled for this summer, and waiting for same-sex marriage to become legal in New York so that she can have her dream wedding at The Museum of Natural History. –MF
In no particular order…
