Cherry Girrl's 10 Best Lesbian Coming Out Moments

In honor of National Coming out day, Cherry Grrl Magazine has come out with the Ten Best Lesbian Coming Out Moments...check them out!

10. Lily Tomlin. On her 1975 album “Modern Scream” Tomlin mocked straight actors who make a point of distancing themselves from their homosexual characters - answering the pseudo-interview question, How did it feel to play a heterosexual? she replied, “I’ve seen these women all my life, I know how they walk, I know how they talk…” Her narration of the documentary The Celluloid Closet in 1995, a film examining Hollywood’s portrayals of homosexuals, was also largely considered a nod to the open secret of her orientation.

9. Suze Orman. In February 2007, financial advisor, writer, and television personality Suze Orman told The New York Times Magazine that she is a lesbian. Always one to be thinking about money, in the interview, Orman said that she wished she could marry her partner, Kathy Travis, partly because it could save them both a lot of money, explaining, “It’s killing me that upon death, K.T. is going to lose 50 percent of everything I have to estate taxes. Or vice versa.”

8. Batwoman. Her character has been around since 1956 but it wasn’t until the modern incarnation of Katherine “Kate” Kane appeared in week seven of the maxi-series 52 in 2006, operating as Batwoman in Gotham City during Batman’s absence following the events of the seven issue miniseries Infinite Crisis, that her sexual identity was revealed by her coming out as a lesbian.

7. K.D. Lang. Lang came out as a lesbian in a 1992 article of The Advocate and one year later made her sexuality even more known by appearing on the cover of the August 1993 issue of Vanity Fair in a barber chair while Cindy Crawford seductively pretended to shave her face.

6. Cynthia Nixon. Although Nixon was publicly “outed” by the New York Post, she never denied her relationship with girlfriend Christine Marinoni, and in an interview in May of 2007 explained her sexuality by stating, “I’m just a woman in love with another woman.”

5. Sheryl Swoopes. In October 2005, Swoopes – who is considered by many to be the best female basketball player ever - publicly announced that she is a lesbian and became one of the most high profile athletes in a team sport to come out publicly.

4. Rosie O’Donnell. Rumors had been circulating for years regarding the popular television personality’s sexual orientation but it was with her January 31, 2002 appearance on Will & Grace when she, in character, exclaimed to Jack “I’m gay!” that she began her coming out process.

3. Melissa Etheridge. Although she has always been known as a strong advocate and icon of the LGBT community, Etheridge came out publicly as a lesbian in January 1993 at the Triangle Ball, a gay and lesbian celebration of President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration.

2. Martina Navratilova. In 1981, shortly after being granted U.S. citizenship, Navratilova came out publicly about her sexual orientation. She may have lost sponsorships because of it but she is still considered to be the greatest female tennis player of all time and an icon in the lesbian community.

1. Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen, who once again makes the number one spot on our Fresh Ten, actually came out twice: she appeared on the April 14, 1997, cover of Time magazine with the headline, “Yep, I’m Gay” and her onscreen character, Ellen Morgan, came out as well during the April 30, 1997, episode of the ABC sitcom Ellen.

Cherry Girrl is an online magazine and lifestyle site dedicated to keeping you up-to-date with the entertainment, news, and cultural information that matters most to the lesbian community