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AE: What did you think about some of the controversies that came up last year among viewers, like the Mark storyline with the videotaping, and the whole issue with whether there enough butches on the show?
DS: I don't look to television to represent me because it never has, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was anything relatively like what I [have experienced]. The one thing I felt about the filming thing [in the Mark storyline] is [that] I didn't understand why they didn't just kick this dude out. It was crazy to me. Like, why did they keep bringing him back? I've never asked, because it's not part of my storyline and I don't really need to know, but I have, as the character, hypothetically tried to figure out why was it that they didn't kick this guy out.

I actually do think that women oftentimes do act under duress from the patriarchy and do things they would not normally do, and tend to put men on some kind of pedestal or let them get away with things that, you know, even lesbians that I know [would let them get away with]. So I guess I could kind of see it, but if you think of it as some kind of representation, I would rather…kick the guy out, [and] show us being strong and standing up for ourselves.

And the butch question? That's funny, because L.A. has a reputation of all these lipstick lesbian types. But when I've gone out there, it's actually not really like that. There's all different kinds of people. There are femmes; there are also plenty of butches on the scene. Maybe certain groups of people don't have butches around; I don't really know. I'm not sure if it's accurate…but I feel like Shane fills it out pretty well. The Shane character—people tend to gravitate toward her, and I think Kate's done a great job representing the butch side, but I always feel like the more the better, you know.

I just think it's interesting as lesbians, or as women activists, feminists—we're demanding, because we don't have enough space on the airwaves. But I think sometimes we want each little thing to represent, to be the perfect thing, instead of just [being] the story. Nobody's speaking up for some Ernest Hemingway book and saying, well, you didn't represent all of Spain in this story; you're just representing the people you've met. I wish there were 20 shows on the air about lesbians, and then we could have all kinds of shows. I don't think that one show can represent everybody, or one piece of art, or anything. And I do think it's probably…representative of certain kinds of women in L.A.

AE: You're only the second openly gay regular cast member on the show. Was that a difficult choice for you to make, to be openly gay?
DS: That was never a choice. I never even entertained not being out. It's just so much a part of my life. My dad's gay, and I was going to gay pride marches since I was a baby, and there was never a question [of not being out]. I feel like they want me and everything that I am. I can't hide anything.

AE: Do you think that being out is going to limit your acting choices? Or even because you're not typically feminine looking?
DS: No, I don't think so at all. In fact, I think it's to my advantage. I'm not worried about it at all because for me, art comes first. It always has. I've never made choices for any safety reasons in my life—you know, hitchhiking across Bulgaria or whatever. I feel like the world is definitely opening up for us, and it takes people in the public eye to open it even more. I think that there will be a plethora of roles coming out. I don't feel like I could only play a tomboy or I could only play boyish types of girls at all. I have different sides to me, too, and I'm confident I could play all kinds of roles.

AE: I did want to ask you about your traveling because it's so incredible—you've traveled so many places. What's one of your favorite places that you've been?
DS: It's hard to say because I've actually loved all the different places I've been, and I've lived in a lot of places for extended periods of time. Right now, when I think about it, I would say Poland , because I learned to speak Polish and a lot of my friends are Polish and I spent a very good amount of time there. It's a beautiful, amazing country. It's definitely got a heavy, mixed history. A good amount of my friends growing up were Jewish, and I was raised hearing a lot of different stories from grandparents about Poland, and going there definitely was a heavy thing for me in some ways.

But people are people everywhere, and we all have these heavy histories in any nation. I just learned so much from living there. Just hanging out with people who weren't brought up under capitalism was a real eye-opener for me, and it made me learn a lot about how we can live together and work together to make change. It's also really gorgeous there. I've lived in a lot of villages there, and I just really love that old way of life, where people are farming their own food and live a self-sustaining life.

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