CelebsNews

Lesbian/Bi Celebrity Girlfriends, Part 1

While the recent passage of Proposition 8 in California was devastating to LGBT people and our supporters everywhere, the issue reinvigorated an international debate about gay marriage.

It also drew attention to a number of famous couples, like Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, who wed in the small window of time that gay marriage was legal in California.

Even celebrity lesbian couples who didn’t get married, such as Melissa Etheridge and partner Tammy Lynn Michaels Etheridge were queried in the press for their views on Prop. 8 and what it means to the future of LGBT rights. Whether appearing on news programs or talk shows, the couples interviewed were typically presented as every bit as committed and family-centric as any heterosexual married couple.

Most of us are on a first name basis with the partners of out celebrities like Ellen, Melissa, and Rosie O’Donnell (her partner is Kelli Carpenter-O’Donnell), but those are just a handful of the women who love and support their famous girlfriends, partners and wives.

With this article, we take our first look at the (often) behind-the-scenes women who love and support the higher-profile women in their life.

Nina Garduno (partner of Leisha Hailey)

You may not know designer Nina Garduno, by name, but if you’re a regular viewer of her partner Leisha Hailey’s show, The L Word, you may have seen the logo for her store, Free City, splashed across t-shirts worn by some of its characters.

Garduno opened the Malibu store in 2005, and its hip, quirky selection of clothing and random goods (custom-made teepees are for sale) garnered both critical and public attention.

In an interview with The New York Times in 2007, she said of the store, “It’s about the experience. I’m interested in having someone walk out of Free City and having had an experience. That’s what matters. They could buy a cheaper bicycle or T-shirt anywhere.” A Los Angeles native, Garduno got her start in fashion when she was just 17 at the Ron Herman/Fred Segal in Los Angeles, and is still the vice president for men’s fashion there.

Not coincidentally, the store was named as the “unofficial headquarters” of the “L.A. tomboy” look popularized on The L Word.

Garduno, 44, and Hailey, 37, have been together since 2001 and have plans to bring Free City to the small artist’s community in Marfa, Texas, where they’ve already bought an old auto repair shop – which may just be the lesbian version of a double-wide.

Hanan Kattan (wife of Shamim Sarif) Producer Hanan Kattan (pictured above left) and novelist/filmmaker Shamim Sarif make a formidable pair. Together for twelve years (they married when civil partnership was legalized in the U.K and have two sons), the two have joined forces and formed the London-based Enlightenment Productions.

In just three years, the company produced two acclaimed feature-length lesbian films, The World Unseen (about a romance between two Indian South-African women in 1950’s Apartheid South Africa) and I Can’t Think Straight (about a relationship between a soon-to-be-married Jordanian woman and the young British Indian lesbian who sweeps her off her feet).

Both were directed by Sarif and based on her novels of the same name. Sarif and Kattan are currently developing the cinematic version of another Sarif novel, Despite the Falling Snow, set to be directed by Sarif and starring Lisa Ray (who also starred in Sarif’s first two films).

The pair was so committed to the making of the films that they even relocated their family to South Africa for production on World Unseen. But that move and all the other sacrifices they’ve made in order to produce the two films seem to have been worthwhile, both personally and otherwise.

Kattan told AfterEllen.com, “I get a lot of emails and feedback from women of Middle Eastern and Arab backgrounds who haven’t come out…They [admire us], especially because they know how difficult it is from our background to sort of come out and live with integrity and openness and have a wife and two children, the whole thing. So there’s a lot of support, certainly.”

A Palestinian woman of Christian background from Jordan, Kattan credits her grandfather for teacher her “that I can achieve whatever I am passionate about [and that] that being a woman from the Middle East should not have a bearing on what I decide to do with my life.”

Before entering the world of film production, Kattan was a power player in the cosmetic industry. She was the force behind a successful cosmetic distribution company and created a whole new product category: holistic premium mass-market products.

As a result, Sarif had no reservations about coaxing her partner into a completely new career.

Sarif told AfterEllen.com, “I knew [Hanan] had the passion and the drive in the business sense, and I was pretty sure she could pick up learning about a new industry too. And, well, you can see the result — two films in two years. It’s great for me.”

Kattan and Sarif are planning to set up a foundation focusing on children and education, particularly in Africa.

“It is our small way to contribute, to give our boys an example of how important it is to think outside of themselves by helping others,” says Kattan. “I hope it will help focus them on what is important in life.”

Susan Mikula (partner of Rachel Maddow) What’s it like to be the love interest of America’s political television equivalent to a lesbian superhero? Ask artist Susan Mikula, 50, the long-time partner of 35-year old political commentator Rachel Maddow, the first out lesbian to host a prime-time news or political commentary show on American television. (The Rachel Maddow Show).

The almost universally-adored Maddow has been with Mikula since their fairytale meeting in 1999.

According to an interview with Newsweek, Mikula needed a “yard boy” and hired Maddow, who was then working on her doctoral dissertation. Maddow recalled, “It was irrational and spiritual and unexpected, and there was a moment where it was like time stopped and it was just like, OK, my whole life is different now.”

They had their first date at a firing range, shooting an array of guns and throwing tomahawks. Mikula says Maddow displayed such skill with an AR-15 that she drew a crowd of onlookers. (So perhaps we should call it a lesbian fairytale meeting.)

Because of Maddow’s work, the two now travel between their home in Massachusetts and an apartment in New York City.

While direct interviews with Mikula herself are scarce, she is consistently (and lovingly) referenced in almost every interview with Maddow, who also told Newsweek that they haven’t married because “we both have a real fondness for the outsider part of our gay culture.”

Mikula is now making the shift to full-time work as an artist.

Of her work, she has said, “I’m obsessed with the passing of time and the way light changes. When I’ve done what I set out to accomplish in a photograph, I have preserved the skipping and floating and grinding of time.” Her photographs can currently be seen at the CHC Gallery in New York City, and you can learn more about her and her work at her website.

Alisa Scott (partner of Sheryl Swoopes) Maybe it was inevitable that the public revelation of a relationship between the first out WNBA player and her partner would be met with controversy.

In 2005, Sheryl Swoopes played for the Houston Comets and came out as a lesbian. In doing so, she also talked openly about her relationship with partner Alisa Scott (pictured above left) who had, until just months earlier, also been the assistant coach for the team.

The intersection of their professional and personal affiliation ruffled feathers even before Swoopes was officially out, and Scott resigned from her position with the Comets.

But before she was known as the partner of one of the best players in the WNBA (and the first women’s basketball player to have a Nike shoe named after her, the “Air Swoopes”), Scott enjoyed an impressive basketball career of her own. The Vicksburg, MS, native played college basketball at the University of Mississippi and participating in four NCAA tournaments, then playing professional basketball in Italy for three years.

Before coming to the WNBA, she worked as the assistant coach at Old Dominion University for six seasons. Scott joined the Comets in 1998, and remained there until her resignation. Three years after coming out, Swoopes now plays for the Seattle Storm and is raising her son with Scott, who has yet to return to coaching.

In a 2007 interview with AfterEllen.com, Swoopes said of Scott:

It’s not that she didn’t want to coach anymore, it was that she had to do something different. The biggest problem was us being together and her being a coach, and I think that’s unfortunate.

Because of that, she has had to change her career. It’s a battle that we are never going to win. I don’t think she will be given the opportunity [to coach] until I’m retired, period. And that frustrates me, because I don’t think that’s right.

Swoopes added, “You have husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends working together in sports and corporate America, and whether that is right or wrong, they don’t lose jobs because of it.”

Lacey Stone (fiancé of Jessica Clark) Lest you think the idea of a lesbian power couple be limited to women over 40 and clad in power suits, consider the dynamic duo of personal trainer Lacey Stone (pictured above, left) and model Jessica Clark.

Stone is a college basketball champion, motivational speaker, and one of the top personal trainers in New York. At just 23, Clark, is already a life coach and accomplished model, perhaps best known for her role in (renowned lesbo-phobe) Usher’s video, “Let It Burn.”

While Clark may (for now) be better known, Wisconsin-native Stone is well on her way to building a fitness empire. She graduated with honors from the University of Maine, briefly worked at CBS Sports, then joined New York’s premiere health club, Equinox Fitness, as a trainer and group fitness instructor. Stone is one of five fitness professionals ever chosen to lead their Underground Invitation Only Workouts for Women, and in October 2008, she launched a free online workout series, Lacey Stone Fitness.

Lacey and Jessica also manage a journal-style nutrition and fitness blog together, which address both the emotional and physical aspects of staying well. Here’s an excerpt from a recent post by Lacey entitled “Don’t doubt it!”:

I feel like “The New Year” carries a lot of pressure with it, don’t you? You have the resolutions. YOU have to change something about yourself. You have to take your career, your fitness, and your relationship to the next level, right?! … I found myself on January 3rd, 2009 having a little bit of an anxiety attack

I said to Jessica, “I don’t know how I’m going to top 2008.” The past year of my life has been an EXPLOSION of success both personally and professionally. Jessica and I got engaged, annnnd my company is doing remarkably well. A LOT has happened…

The doubt started to creep in and I began to freak out a little. What if I can’t maintain this level of success?

I feel like a lot of people get anxiety with the coming of a New Year. When the doubt comes in the most crucial thing I do is recognize it. Doubt takes many forms. One is fear that you’ll hurt yourself by going forward. Another form of doubt is feeling that you’ve misunderstood your life and that you’re constantly making a fundamental mistake.

When I recognize “I’m doubting” I make a mental note/point to talk myself through it before it snowballs into a massive catastrophizing event.

As she mentioned in her post, Clark and Stone recently announced their engagement, and, in case you’re wondering, yes, they did fall in love at the gym.

J.D. Samson of Le Tigre (girlfriend of Sia)

J.D. Samson of Le Tigre and singer/songwriter Sia? It may just be one of the most interesting musical romances of all time. The Australian-born, bisexual Sia, 33, has been recording since 1997, but wasn’t widely known until the memorable use of her song, “Breathe Me” in the 2005 series finale of HBO’s Six Feet Under garnered her instant attention. Since then, they eclectic singer has found surprising success in the typically mundane realms of television (Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice) and commercials (“Breathe Me” was licensed to Coca-Cola) while still maintaining her indie cred.

Sia recently began talking more openly about her bisexuality in the press, but had little to say about her mystery girlfriend.

In a 2008 interview with AfterEllen.com, Sia admitted, “I’m trying to be respectful…I’ve never really dated anyone who was really private. I’m used to being really open about all my relationships, but I know that for her it’s an issue.”

The girlfriend in question turned out to be Samson, who is, unlike Sia, still strictly off the beaten musical path.

Samson joined electronica/punk band Le Tigre in 2000 and is also a member of another pop/electronica band, The New England Roses, and has toured with Peaches.

While Le Tigre is on hiatus, the 30-year old musician is working with bandmate Johanna Fateman on the remix project Men and recently co-produced (with Bitch) “In the Meantime” by out lesbian musician Ferron. Perhaps most importantly, Samson is co-founder of conceptual dance group “Dykes Can Dance.” The group performs choreographed dance routines around New York in order to battle the nasty stereotype that lesbians are lousy dancers. Samson proves once and for all that true activism comes in many forms.

Urvashi Vaid (partner of Kate Clinton)

Comedian Kate Clinton has been making lesbians (and everyone else) laugh about politics for over 25 years, so it should come as no surprise that her partner, Indian-American attorney and activist Urvashi Vaid, would share her passion for the subject. Vaid showed an interest in social justice from an early age. She attended her first protest at the age of 11, organized feminist and LGBT groups in college, and began working with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) in 1983.

From there she went on to work with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, first as a director of public information and then as the executive director of their Policy Institute. From 2001 to 2005, she was the deputy director of the Governance and Civil Society Unit of the Peace and Social Justice Program at the Ford Foundation.

A longtime advocate of LGBT people working within mainstream culture in order to attain justice, she published a book on the subject in 1996, Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation.

In a 1996 interview with The Progressive, she stated, “I have never been a single-issue person…I feel that I have always been a progressive person who happened to be working in the gay and lesbian movement.”

Vaid’s latest endeavor is a testament to that philosophy.

Her Arcus Foundation is dedicated to both human and animal rights, and its mission is to “achieve social justice that is inclusive of sexual orientation, gender identity and race, and to ensure conservation and respect of the great apes.” Clinton and Vaid share homes in both

Manhattan and Provincetown

, MA, and on her official website

Clinton jokingly refers to Vaid as “my dear domestic partner, co-conspirator, personal ATM, culture war bride girlfriend.”

In a 2001 interview with The Advocate,

Clinton said, “[My relationship with Urvashi is] the best thing that ever happened to me. I met Urvashi in ’88. We really helped each other. She’s very serious, and now she laughs more. I was very funny, but now I have more content.”

Professor Miriam Meckel (partner of Anne Will) Before the U.S. had lesbian political television commentator Rachel Maddow, Germany claimed Anne Will (pictured above right) as its very own lesbian political talk-show host.

Will, the former host of Germany’s most popular evening news show Tagesthemen and the current host of the top-rated political talk show Anne Will, came out in 2007 at a Jewish Museum event in Berlin when she publicly acknowledged her relationship with long-time partner, Professor Miriam Meckel.

“Yes we are a couple,” Will told reporters, “but we would like to keep our private life private.”

Nonetheless, their announcement make big headlines in Germany and throughout Europe, both because of Will’s fame, and Meckle’s considerable accomplishments.

Currently a Professor for Corporate Communication and Director of the Institute for Media and Communication Management at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, Meckle was a journalist before becoming the youngest university professor in Germany in 1999.

She is also a member of network Deutsche Welle’s broadcasting board, and was formerly the State Secretary for Europe, International Affairs and Media of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

To say she’s smart is an understatement. She can also rock a pair of jeans. No wonder Miriam and Anne are Germany’s power lesbian couple!

If you’re fluent in German, you can read Meckle’s blog on her official website.

Samantha Ronson (girlfriend of Lindsay Lohan) If you’ve turned on a computer or television lately, you know DJ Samantha Ronson’s name.

When her girlfriend, actress and singer Lindsay Lohan, isn’t blogging on Myspace to discredit rumors of their breakup (this week’s Lindsay Report: nope, still not broken up), the tabloids are writing about Ronson’s health problems, her alleged smackdowns with Lohan, and what Lohan might be drinking when she’s hanging out with Ronson behind the turntables.

Ronson has had high-profile DJ gigs for years – she spun live for MTV’s New Year’s Eve 2001 show from the network’s studios in Times Square – but her fame skyrocketed a few years ago because of her relationship with Lohan, which was not publicly acknowledged by either of them until recently.

The English-born Ronson, 31 (who has a twin sister – fashion designer Charlotte Ronson) was surrounded by music at an early age (her stepfather is Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones), and originally pursued a career as a singer-songwriter. She was the first rock act signed to Roc-A-Fella Records, and music from her first album, Red, was featured in the Lohan film Mean Girls.

She has since changed her focus to full-time work as a DJ, and her high-profile romance with Lohan (who frequently attends her gigs) has made her services even more in demand. She is also one of the co-owners of New York City nightclub The Plumm.

Though some dismiss the Ronson-Lohan romance as merely gossip-fodder, their relationship – and how the press has covered it – has come to represent a change in the way a new generation of women define their sexuality, and how media outlets address the issue of a celebrity being “out” in a time when sexual orientation is becoming less-rigidly defined.

Suggest a celesbian girlfriend/partner/wife for us to include in a future installment in the comments (only out and openly acknowledged significant others will be profiled).

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