Morning Brew – Tuesday, September 21: Gaga’s speech on DADT, Alexandra Hedison likes “Dancing With the Stars” & Jamie Lee Curtis

Morning!

If you were watching Dancing With the Stars last night, you might have caught a glimpse of Alexandra Hedison in the audience, seated next to Jamie Lee Curtis. It seems the two women are friendly, as Jamie attends Alexandra’s art openings and the like.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking: Does Jamie ask Alexandra to use Activia?

If you didn’t catch Lady Gaga’s speech in Maine yesterday, here is the full 16 minutes. Prepare to love her if you don’t already.

The glasses are a nice touch, eh?

Sesame Street has Wanda Sykes talking about how she keeps a journal about her thoughts and feelings. Elmo is interested in all the details.

Juicy stuff!

Both Weeds and The Big C have been renewed for another season by Showtime. Does this mean more Linda Hamilton and Cynthia Nixon? We can hope.

R.I.P. lesbian feminist writer Jill Johnston. In the 1970s, she was famous for her column in The Village Voice and later went on to write for Art News and The New York Times Book Review, as well as having published several books.

She’ll be missed.

Detroit-based lesbian MC Invincible was originally told she couldn’t run her new video on mtvU because of “sensitive content.” The video depicts people that suffer from both suicide and depression, and fans and an organization called Half of Us helped educate MTV that the video is aiming to help educate viewers on mental health. Now the ban has been lifted, and Invincible says, “The video being denied by MTV in the first place opened up an overdue dialogue online about mental health in the hip-hop community and beyond, and showed how taboo the subject is, which is why many people are still facing it in secrecy and silence. I hope “Ropes” being shown on mtvU continues to spark that conversation and lifts the burden of shame associated with these issues.”

Babble.com has run two pieces this week that caught my eye. One is from a lesbian mom called “I Flunk Being a Girly Mama.” The other asks “Do You Worry That Your Child is Gay?” and the writer points out the idiocy of all the gender and sexuality stereotypes are that we put on children and ourselves. Kudos Babble.

Apparently I’m not the only one that thinks Nicki Minaj shouldn’t be considered a gay icon. The MOG Music Network writes:

So she turned heads by teasing lesbians, then backpedaled and showered all of her female fans with love. She can be heard on mixtapes using the anti-gay phrase, “no homo,” something she surely started in hopes of fitting in more with the mainstream rap acts. Although she has since removed the expression from her vocabulary, replacing it with a simple “pause,” in light of her growing Ken Barbie stable, LGBT Minaj fans shouldn’t forget it when deciding whether or not to deem her a positive force in the gay movement. They should be angry to learn their idol is nothing but a “fauxmosexual.”

WIMN.com has a nice piece on how Rachel Maddow is leading the way for women in political discussion and journalism. The author writes:

Last month, at a comedy benefit for Gulf birds threatened by BP’s environmental catastrophe, This American Life’s Ira Glass asked Maddow whether she sees herself as a journalist, an advocate, or some hybrid thereof. “My mission is to increase the amount of useful information in the world,” she replied. And so she does.

Yeah, she’s awesome. No one can dispute her being a gay icon.

In this video interview, Rosie O’Donnell talks about he upcoming show on the new Oprah network, OWN.

Oprah loves her gay women!

Today on TV: TCM airs the 1978 documentary about gay men and women called Word Is Out: Stories of Our Lives (2 a.m.), USA re-runs the Law & Order: SVU episode, “Fallacy,” starring Kate Moennig as a trans woman who says she was raped and killed her attacker in her defense (12 p.m.). Catch the rerun of MEN on IFC’s Dinner WIth the Band (12:45 p.m.) and Jeff continues to work with a lesbian couple on remodeling their house on Flipping Out (Bravo 9 p.m.)

Plus Dancing with the Stars will have its first elimination, so I hope you voted for Margaret Cho (ABC 8 p.m.) Glee has its second season premiere (Fox 8 p.m.) and The Biggest Loser returns for its tenth season with Jillian Michaels (NBC 8 p.m.)

Also, I’ll be out of the office tomorrow, so check back for Brew on Thursday.