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Morning Brew – Wed. April 25: Tilly and Jen romance each other on “Hollyoaks,” Alison Bechdel on her role in LGBT progress

Good morning!

ABC is bringing the one-woman New Zealand comedy series Super City to the U.S. Madeleine Sami plays several different characters, including a closeted lesbian gym teacher named Jo, as you can see in the trailer for the DVD below.

I’m ready for a funny lesbian character to be a regular on a TV series. The ones we have now are all so serious!

Alison Bechdel told a reporter that she started creating her comics to make the world a better place, with LGBT progress in mind:

In my youth, I was more I have to make the world a better place, and now I’m more like, I have to write this; it has to come out. But I still feel like there is a similar mission. I couldn’t see that until recently, but what I was doing with “Dykes to Watch Out For” was creating a reflection of myself in the world. I wanted to see images of women like me and my friends, and I wasn’t seeing them anywhere in the culture in the early ’80s. So I decided I would make them myself. That was a very pressing mission for many years. I feel like I was part of the success of [the LGBT] movement in the culture, and it enabled me to then go on to tell this very queer story about my own family that I couldn’t have told to a broader audience when I was younger – it wasn’t possible; no one was interested; it was unacceptable. It was a much more personal project, not a political one like Dykes was. [Instead of] Yeaaah, I’m gonna represent lesbians, it was more like, I’m gonna represent my dad and my family.

She also talks about how, in Are You My Mother?, she writes that being a lesbian “saved her.”

Being a lesbian saved me because it pulled me out of my mind. Even though my coming-out process was very internal and happened all in books – I basically came out through reading books and identifying with the characters in books – then I actually went out in the world and found girlfriends and people to have sex with, and relationships with. If it had just been heterosexual desire, I might not have had to think about it. I would have just done it and ended up in some dysfunctional relationship like my mother did. This is such a platitude, but it’s challenges that make us grow, and the challenge of grappling with being sexually different in this culture was really helpful for me. I always feel like it was a gift, like a bonus.

I agree, Alison, gayness is a gift!

Collider has a great interview with the out creator of Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23, Nahnatchka Khan. She talks about how far she can go with the character of Chloe, who is the “b” in apt. 23. They are dealing with network TV, after all.

Thank you to everyone who has sent me tips on the latest Hollyoaks romance: Tilly and Jen! They look really color-coordinated in this photo.

Jen is a new student teacher and Tilly is a pupil, but they don’t realize it when they meet and start to fancy one another. Sounds like Ezria! Head over to OneMoreLesbian to watch their scenes together so far.

Out Aussie comedian Magda Szubanski is in the new Kath & Kim film, Kath & Kimdrella. You can catch a glimpse of her in the trailer.

Today in Lesbianish TV: The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Rachel Maddow on The Wendy Williams Show, Talking Liberally with Stephanie Miller (Current 9 a.m.), *Say Yes to the Dress (TLC 11 a.m.), The Talk (CBS 2 p.m.), Mulholland Dr. (WMAX 3:30 p.m.), *America’s Next Top Model marathon (Oxygen 3:30 p.m.), Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement (Sundance 4:15 p.m.), The Times of Harvey Milk (Flix 6:30 p.m.), Bound (WMAX 8:10 p.m.), The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC 9 p.m.), America’s Next Top Model (CW 9 p.m.), LP on Jimmy Kimmel (ABC midnight), Fried Green Tomatoes (HBO Family 12:05 a.m.) and *Lost Girl (Syfy 1 a.m.) (Thanks Roni!)

*Denotes a rerun

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