My first experience with lesbians was scary. I was 16 and working as a waitress in a notoriously gay area of Massachusetts. The other waitresses were big dykes and I ended up having to run away from them because I didn't want to get beaten up.
Then I decided to study in New York at Sarah Lawrence College, which had a reputation for being inundated with lesbians. It's funny because every lesbian I knew there is now married with children. I remember on my first day spotting this beautiful girl with gorgeous, long, shiny hair. Then someone told me she was gay. I was shocked. Before then I had always believed lesbians could only have short, spiky hair. That's when I first discovered the term "lipstick lesbian".
I didn't want to play Carla as a butch dyke. That's why I have this long, luscious hair. Her partner Rachel (Kyra Sedgwick) is the more girlie one of the two. The scenes between Kyra and me aren't raunchy - you only see us kiss. It's funny because my character has to pretend to be Rachel's room-mate for the purpose of a Thanksgiving meal with her parents. I liked the fact that we were a lesbian couple but we didn't feel the need to rub it in her parents' face. They would have been uncomfortable with it.
It was an enjoyable role. I think acceptance of gays and lesbians has improved. But I don't know what kind of reaction you'd get in middle America to two women holding hands. I am not lesbian, by the way. I've had a relationship with the actor Ron Eldard for the past ten years.
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Cert: cert12
