After months of refusing to comment on the public speculation about their relationship, actress Lindsay Lohan and DJ Samantha Ronson finally publicly confirmed their relationship in a L.A. radio call-in show last night, in a short, casual exchange confirming that they’ve been together “a very long time.”
Lohan and Ronson called into the radio show Loveline last night to chat with DJ Ted Stryker about DJ AM’s recent survival of a plane crash that killed four other passengers.
Lohan mentioned on air that she initially learned of the plane crash, ” “when I woke up, er, when Samantha and I woke up…”
In wrapping up the conversation a few minutes later, Stryker casually asked Lindsay, “Now, you guys, you and Samantha have been going out for how long now? Like two years? One year? Five months? Two months?” Lohan responded, “A long…a very long time.”
“I hope you guys stay together, you’re a very lovely looking couple,” Stryker added, to which Lindsay replied, “Thank you very much.”
Lohan and Ronson are among only a handful of high-profile American celebrities in same-sex relationships, including women like Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi, Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Paulson, Cherry Jones, Suze Orman, Heather Matarazzo, Leisha Hailey, and Michelle Paradise. At 22 and 31, respectively, Lohan and Ronson are among the youngest out lesbian celebrity couples in America.
In a editorial on AfterEllen.com last week called “Lindsay Lohan and the New Definition of ‘Out'”, we profiled Lohan and Ronson as an example of a new wave of same-sex couples who are re-defining the notion of what being “out” means.
Lohan and Ronson have accompanied each other almost everywhere for over two years now, attend public events together, wear matching rings, kiss in public, and have had their relationship captured in countless photographs. They have even spoken out together against Gov. Sarah Palin’s anti-gay stance.
They have done everything but verbally confirm their relationship — until now.
But does acknowledging the relationship with words still matter in an era in which the grocery-shopping, event-attending, ring-wearing and hand-holding behavior of same-sex couples is now reported on almost as often as heterosexual couples?
While saying it out loud is arguably no longer a requirement to being out, words still have power — especially to the vast majority of straight Americans for whom the presumption of heterosexuality is so great they simply won’t believe a same-same relationship is true unless it is openly declared.
This is one of the reasons Ellen de Generes and Portia de Rossi’s “Wal-Mart wedding” makes such a difference — it makes the romantic nature of their relationship both appealing and unavoidable to mainstream America.
Lohan’s simple and low-key verbal confirmation of what most lesbian and bi women already knew may well do the same for a younger generation.
9/24 MORNING UPDATE: Lohan refuted her father’s recent anti-gay and anti-Samantha comments via an email from her rep to Page Six saying, “Samantha is not evil, I care for her very much and she’s a wonderful girl. She loves me, as I do her.”
9/24 EVENING UPDATE: Lohan’s publicist is now denying that Lohan confirmed a romantic relationship with Ronson, telling TV Guide that Lindsay was simply confirming they have a close friendship. This spin on the radio conversation is not supported by Lohan’s statements, however (no one confirms how long they have “been together” with a friend).
In related news, pop star Clay Aiken has just come out on the cover of People magazine.
