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Samantha Ronson: “I’m not gay. I’m an equal opportunity player.”

Samantha Ronson has been tight-lipped throughout her career, but it seems as if she’s ready to open up about her personal and professional lives. In a candid interview with The Times Sunday magazine, the DJ talked about her sexuality and her very public relationship with Lindsay Lohan.

On how she met Lindsay:

She first met Lohan on the LA club scene, through Wilmer Valderrama, an actor on American sitcom That ”70s Show and the actress’s former boyfriend. Ronson explains that she knew Valderrama from “LA, from around the way. He’s a nice guy. LA is almost like high school.” She pauses. “A lot like high school. The scene is really small within certain clubs. One person knows one person, and you just always end up in that mix.”

On dating someone so famous:

To be honest, being with her was more of a headache than anything else. Everything I was doing I was already doing. It just meant there were paparazzi pictures documenting it. It sucked, because I’m a pretty private person and I managed to stay under the radar for so long,” says Ronson, though the idea that this relationship was not at some point going to be blasted across the world seems inconceivable. “But at the same time,” she continues, “I’m not gonna not hang out with somebody that I care about because of that s**t.”

On knowing who Lindsay Lohan was before they met:

She claims that the only reason she knew of Lohan was that “Built This Way,” one of the songs from her Red album (which was never officially released), was on the soundtrack to the 2004 film Mean Girls, in which Lohan starred. “Other than that, she was like a little kid as far as I was concerned. And then, when I met her, she was this sweet, cool little girl. And we were friends for years before anything. And I feel like I was a great influence. Because as much as my life is in clubs and stuff, my personality isn’t. So we had every other time chilling. It wasn’t like I was out getting f***ed up every night.”

And the interviewer then asks himself what we’re all wondering as well: “Why, after all this time and her previous silence, did Ronson decide to talk to me now about the affair?”

He hypothesizes it has to do with the fact she’s just signed a deal with a management company — Simon Fuller’s 19 Entertainment — as Samantha hopes to “expand her interests and brand, via a new album she’s recording and strategic media appearances.” So basically, good old-fashioned publicity!

She doesn’t speak ill of Lindsay, but does seem to have issues with how she was portrayed in the press when it comes to their relationship (or the aftermath).

“The fact that Perez Hilton calls me ‘Saman’ — it’s the most homophobic thing ever,” she spits. “The perpetuation of [the idea that I’m] the man in the relationship! OK, yeah, my hair is short and I’m a DJ. But I’m a girl, I’m not a dude. I’m pretty feminine at the end of the day.”

Perhaps most surprising to fans is Samantha’s statements on her sexuality. In short, she doesn’t identify as a lesbian.

“Everyone was like, ‘Openly gay DJ Samantha Ronson…’ No! Uh, excuse me! I’m not gay! I’m an equal-opportunity player! I still go back and forth. But I got called so many things by the press that ‘openly gay’ was the least of my worries at that point. Of course, I must be masculine and I must be violent. I’m sorry…” she tails off with a laugh. “When the rumours started that I hit her or whatever, I called Lindsay up and I was like, ‘You need to dead this rumour now.’ÔÇè”

So where did the idea of her being “openly gay” come from? Likely it had to with her style and the fact that she and Lindsay were clearly an item. But if she never said to anyone she was “lesbian,” or “bisexual,” it’s often easier for the press at large to refer to her as “gay” than anything else. It gets the point across, I suppose, but certainly can offend someone if it isn’t how he or she identifies. So from now on, it seems we must refer to Samantha as “openly bisexual” in the vein of Jillian Michaels.

As for her relationship with her ex-girlfriend now, Samantha says of Lindsay:

“I love her as a human being,” says Ronson. “And I’m not gonna sit there and negate everything that we had. You know, I could have a thousand times countered s–t with facts. And it’s just not for me.”

Does anything about what Sam has to say surprise you? I have to say I’m a little shocked but it could be that we all made assumptions based on her lack of disputing her assumed sexuality. At any rate, she seems to be very open about her queerness and her relationship with Ms. Lohan. Thanks for finally speaking out, Sam, especially about the homophobic and misogynistic statements made by Perez Hilton. We’re glad to hear your side of the story, especially after so much speculation.

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