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When I asked Olga if she thought that she and Eden Riegel had succeeded in living up to the couple's ground-breaking and progressive reputation, she responded "Yes, we succeeded to a certain extent. We succeeded in making this couple acceptable." After a pause, she amended, "not acceptable in a realistic sense, since our relationship hasn’t been portrayed truly realistically, which would have been nice." She described Bianca and Lena's physical relationship as "kind of ostentatiously reserved" compared to what gets shown between heterosexual couples, "although I’m quite shocked by what does get shown between the heterosexual couples."

"Ostentatiously reserved" is putting it rather mildly. Even though the couple recently started “dating” again (with the writers even dangling the possibility of a triangle with Bianca’s best friend Maggie), there still exists a double-standard where intimacy between lovers of the same sex is concerned: in the entire year of their on-again, off-again relationship, the women have only kissed twice on-screen.

While some actresses who play gay seem to keep quiet about it or constantly try to remind the public that they're "straight", Olga has taken on the mantle of lesbian icon rather seriously. “I don’t seek out to do political things," she says, "but I’m delighted if I can.” She's donated her time and energy to fan sponsored fundraisers that have raised money for several charities connected to Bianca and Lena's story lines. Over $20,000 has been raised for the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project.

Of her whole experience at All My Children, Olga comments "I would never have known what a powerful tool TV could be, especially daytime. It’s frightening to the extent it’s a huge responsibility on the producers, directors, and actors to influence minds. You can’t underestimate the force of it."

In fact, Ms. Sosnovska has been so overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from her fans that she asked that I pass along this message: "I apologize to anybody who’s sent me anything and hasn’t gotten a reply. I physically can’t keep up with it (the volume of mail), especially when I go away," she says, emphasizing her recent two-week trip to London. "I’m forever catching up."

When asked what her husband thinks of her rather large and vocal contingent of lesbian fans she replies, “We barely ever talk about work, but he thinks it’s funny that all this has become as controversial as it has," since tolerance of gay characters on television in the U.S. still lags far behind the UK. I wondered if he was proud of her, since her large fan base is clearly a testament to her acting skills, and she said she actually did ask him once, and his answer was “Yes, I am.”

Olga is also very outspoken about current political controversy. "I've been listening to the debate about gay marriage. it’s very difficult to wrap my head around people who oppose such a basic right. There’s no logic behind any of these reasons [against gay marriage]. [Those opposed to it] have no idea about the fact that they’re talking about normal people." In this respect, she hopes her role as Lena has helped, if even a little, since "the more human faces you can put to this story, the better."

Television can be both a reflection of who we are, as well as a vision of who we would like to be. Lesbians and bisexual women have never had many characters we could call our own, and certainly we've never had a daytime couple that we could pin our hopes and dreams on. Olga Sosnovska and Eden Riegel together as Lena and Bianca became that couple, and the audience was finally given the chance to see two sexy, confident, and very out women together as daytime television's first lesbian couple.

Showtime's new drama The L Word may have more lesbian and bisexual content, but it's only available on pay cable, and essentially preaches to the converted. All My Children, on the other hand, is seen everyday in homes across the country that might not intentionally tune into shows with lesbian characters, and the fact that many viewers have grown up with some of the characters on AMC has enabled them to develop a certain comfort level they don't have with other television characters.

What was it about this particular couple that endeared them to so many viewers across the country, allowing them to create a significant contribution to the acceptance of lesbians and bisexual women on screen and in society?

Chemistry for one thing: despite the network's double-standard that blocked Bianca and Lena from the same avenues for physical expression the heterosexual couples on the show enjoyed, the two women still managed to make the screen sizzle. And the chemistry she and Eden have on screen has made her one of the fan's favorites despite a change in the writing team which side-lined her character for most of the last 9 months. One of the main reasons that viewers both gay and straight have thoroughly fallen for this pairing was the amazingly realistic portrayal of two people in love who just happen to be women.

"They are both sensational actresses who, though heterosexual, committed wholly to the relationship", says Mimi Torchin, former founding editor-in-chief of Soap Opera Weekly and current columnist for the magazine along with soap opera website, SOAPnet.com. "You weren't aware so much that history was being made but rather that this was something beautiful and special that you had never seen before," she continues. "There was a purity to their love that made it non-threatening to the straight audience." It was also a classic soap opera story of love and redemption--the bad girl saved by the love of an innocent.

As the anniversary of the historic kiss approaches, AMC will lose its unlikely icon, and possibly many of its viewers, lesbian or otherwise. Many of the fans feel let down by ABC’s willingness to trot out the lesbians (and the specter of a lesbian triangle) for increased ratings during sweeps week, but their consistent unwillingness to detract from their grand rape/murder/baby storyline to give us a realistic and fully realized lesbian relationship.

While no official date has been set for Lena’s final appearance, Olga’s contract expired on March 31st, and by early May, Ms. Sosnovska will be back in London to begin filming the third season of the BBC primetime spy drama Spooks (which we see here in North America on A&E as MI-5). She will be missed. But I have no doubt that where ever she goes and whatever roles she’ll take on in the future; Olga will continue to be a strong and vocal advocate for our community.

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