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“The L Life” aims to make household names of lesbians

The L Life kind of fell into Erin McHugh‘s lap. The author of the book, which comes out today, was having lunch (“a sandwich,” specifically) with the President of Abrams Books when he asked her, “Would you like to do a lesbian book for us?”

“And I said, ‘Yes!'” McHugh said. “It was completely out of the blue and he said ‘What would it be about?’ and I had no clue. I said, ‘Let me finish my sandwich and I’ll go home and think.'”

And what came out of that conversation was The L Life, a coffee-table book with original portrait photography and interview profiles of famous modern day lesbians.

“It didn’t take long to figure out what I wanted to present,” McHugh said. “As always, we feel like invisible people since we’re a minority and almost right away it became this funny sisterhood with the first people I had, like Kate Clinton. And Kate said, ‘Well you can’t do this book without Kate Kendell who was already on my long list, although I didn’t know her.'”

The lesbian phone tree worked its magic for McHugh and photographer Jennifer May, who worked for more than a year to coordinate who and where and when they’d be meeting with to feature in the book. The L Life is 160 pages of insight into each individual woman’s life, and the women in it are from all over the country. From household names like Jane Lynch to politicians and activists like Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and Hon. Christine Quinn, the stories they tell are about realizing they were gay, coming out, living out in high-profile positions and moving through life as successful lesbians .

“I think I just tried to focus on ‘look these women are lesbians, but let’s focus on who they are in this world,'” McHugh said. “Not, ‘Well here are the greatest lesbians we know of in captivity.'”

For example, Randi Weingarten‘s profile has much more about her position as president of the American Federation of Teachers than her sexuality.

“Randi came out really late in her career thinking that it would affect her career. And it didn’t,” McHugh said. “We’re in a nation where some people that still think we shouldn’t have a gay teacher, so how could the head of all teachers be gay?”

Those are the kinds of people that McHugh selected for The L Life, though there are a few that seemed to be missing from the first book about well-known lesbians. Perhaps the most glaring omission: Ellen DeGeneres. McHugh said she did try for Ellen, but was told the talk show host doesn’t participate in books or interviews much. Another person readers might assume would be part of a book called “The L” anything? Ilene Chaiken.

“I tried but I got a ‘no’ from her as well,” McHugh said. ” I talked to [Ilene’s people] at length and I thought it was going to go through but it was a time when she was focused on The Real L Word and [The L Word] movie.”

The L Life may have some lesser-known lesbians on the “famous” scale, but that doesn’t mean the subjects are any less powerful or inspiring. In fact, the book is almost better because of it. Where else do we get to hear about Lupe Valdez, the out Latina Dallas County Sheriff? Or the Executive Vice President and General Manger of Logo, Lisa Sherman?

“I don’t think any of these women get enough attention,” McHugh said. “What I was trying to say was these particular women are heroic in their lives to come out as lesbians. I felt like if you’re famous and a lesbian but you haven’t stood up about it, then I don’t really care.”

Back to the idea of the lesbian phone tree. It really helped McHugh that some of the women in the book are ex-girlfriends.

“There were a lot of people who helped me and said, ‘I’m going to contact this person for you’ or ‘I’m going to write this person for you’ – that kind of thing,” McHugh said. ” And every one of them really opened up, and my huge worry was how am I going to do these people justice?”

The L Life pays every lesbian included her due, and with a gorgeous accompanying photo of each in her element. Alison Bechdel poses in front of her Vermont home, and in her studio at her desk; corporate exec Sally Susman dons a pair of pearls with her hands on her lap; Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum stands with an altar between two rainbow flags; Lupe Valdez looks on from outside of her police car.

“We tried to have the locations be places that speak to the person,” McHugh said. “You know, you don’t want to do that sort of thing at an office.” Unless, of course, that person is at home in her office, like Tammy Baldwin.

“I want people to say ‘here are some interesting women who have become universal,’ like Jane Lynch,” McHugh said. “[Jane] said that in her lifetime she wants being gay to be as odd as being left-handed. And I hope that everybody buys [the book]. I hope that parents buy it for their gay daughters and I hope the gay daughters buy it for their parents and it helps them understand. I hope it gets some universal coverage; some mainstream coverage, even if I don’t get to sell it that way. I hope straight people buy it or even just talk about it.”

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