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A character in Allison Anders’ 1996 film Grace of My Heart was loosely based on the teenaged Lesley Gore. Bridget Fonda plays a pop starlet whose squeaky clean, boy-crazed image belies that she’s a lesbian. The movie’s main character, loosely based on Carole King, writes a song for this young woman to sing that hints at her need to remain in the closet: “Girls like me have to hide our hearts away / We must be wise/and keep our disguise / Stand by our lies…”

But the song is also willful and determined: “I refuse to think of losing you / I won't give the world the chance of accusing you / I refuse / I'd sooner die than tell / I'm under your secret spell / My Secret Love.”

Anders had asked Gore to write the song, “My Secret Love,” expressly for the movie’s soundtrack. But before Gore could do so, she received a song in the mail and wasn’t comfortable putting her name on it until she had doctored the music and lyrics. In the end she received a third writer’s credit and no invitation to the movie’s premiere. She didn’t play a part in developing the character that was based on her and now feels somewhat used by the experience.

The movie’s soundtrack is star-studded, with songs written by Joni Mitchell, Carol Bayer Sager, Elvis Costello and Marvin Hamlisch. The latter wrote songs for Lesley Gore at the height of her success and was just 17 when he co-wrote "‘Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows." Gore sings that song in the 1965 teen flick Ski Party, whose tagline is “it's where the HEs meet the SHEs on SKIs and there's only one way to get warm!”

As a gauge of her stature, Gore shared the cameo spotlight with James Brown, who sings his hit “I Feel Good” in the same movie.

Gore performed in another 1965 movie, Girls on the Beach. She sings a song that she wrote, “Leave Me Alone,” at a benefit concert for a group of girls who have just two weeks to raise $10,000 to save their sorority house. The following year Gore made a guest appearance on the Donna Reed Show, then played Pussycat, sidekick to Batwoman, on two episodes of Batman, where she sang another Hamlisch song, “California Nights.” She starred in Coca-Cola commercials in 1967 and was a guest on the Late Night Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1970.

By 1980 her popularity as a singer had waned somewhat, but Gore co-wrote an Oscar-nominated song for the movie Fame, “Out Here on My Own,” with her younger brother Michael. Michael Gore composed other music for the film, including the title song.

By that point Lesley had become a feminist icon, thanks to her enduring hit “You Don’t Own Me.” Fittingly, the woman behind such pioneering material for its time appeared on Murphy Brown in 1998.

Gore says that her interview with AfterEllen.com is the first time she has come out "on the record" because she has never felt a need to do so, having long been involved in gay-themed shows and events. "I really never kept my life private," she explains. "Those who knew me, those who worked with me were well aware."

In February of this year she hosted a program on In the Life, a gay and lesbian newsmagazine for public television, as her way of giving something back to the community. “I meet a lot of young people in the Midwest,” she told us, “and I saw what a difference a show like In the Life can make to their lives in some of these small towns where there are probably two gay people in the whole damn town. They come and they talk to me about this stuff, so I know how important it is.”

Still looking younger than her years, Gore turned 59 earlier this month. She lives in New York with her partner of 23 years and their cocker spaniel, Little Billie (named after Billie Holiday, Gore’s favorite singer). She continues to record and perform, with a new album coming out and a U.S. tour kicking off in New York City on June 28th.

Read the AfterEllen.com interview with Lesley Gore
or check out her new album / fan club