-- At times, some people may feel that being lesbian is a handicap. Have you ever personally felt that way?

It depends on the person. Do I? Personally? Well, you know society can hold you back, and society can be your enemy. It really depends on how you view yourself and how you stand in this world. That's what I'm reading about in this book, "American Soul". It's about standing in your own power.

In other words, if I thought there was something wrong with being a lesbian, then it would be a handicap for me. But I don't see it as a handicap. Not only am I gay, I have blonde hair, I'm Irish and Swedish, I'm six feet tall, and I'm deaf in one ear. Lesbian is just another thing that I am. I think if you view yourself in that way, then you’ll carry yourself differently. So, no, I don’t think it's a handicap at all.

Some people have freckles, and some people don’t. Some people have blue eyes, and some people don't. That’s all there was to it! I forgot who said this, but there’s a saying: "Nature loves variety” It’s so true! There are thousands and thousands of different kinds of animals and people on this planet. But, counter to this, society HATES variety. They want to put us all into little boxes: black and white, man and woman. But life is varied. Not every gay and lesbian person is one hundred percent gay, either! It's life. It's variety. And there's nothing wrong with that.

-- I couldn’t agree with you more! By the way, how did you realize that you were a lesbian? When was it?

I wanted to kiss women! (laughs) It started when I was about twelve years old. Though I wasn’t always accepting of it, I was pretty sure about it. I knew all along.

-- You’re probably more publicly out now than ever before and you don’t seem like you’d have any problem with it. Was it difficult for you at first, when you still hadn’t quite accepted it?

It was difficult in high school and during adolescence. I grew up in a suburb of Chicago, and as far as I knew there were no gay people there. At that time I thought that if you were in love with a woman, that it would be an unreciprocated love, and that it would only bring pain. It was considered kind of a “sickness” and I knew that I had “it”. So, that was hard.

-- When were you able to start accepting it?

Well, it didn’t just happen all at once, it was a process. But I would say after I told my family, in my early 30's.

-- I was living in Switzerland fifteen years ago, and at that time gays and lesbians didn’t have much visibility to speak of at all. But, one day, I saw a documentary on TV about gay people and one woman in it said, "I didn’t choose to be born a lesbian. If I could have chosen, I would’ve been born straight." Lesbians in those days would be sending that sort of message. They probably thought that by accentuating the fact that they did not choose to be born that way, they could escape the animosity normally directed at them. However, nowadays, I have the impression that lesbians are proud of what they are--like we can see with The L Word. I’ve the feeling this new generation of lesbians would never think in those terms. What do you think?

Well, I'm not uniquely proud of it. There was a time I would have perhaps liked to have been straight. But, ultimately, where I stand now is, being a lesbian is really just a part of me. It's almost the same as asking me, "Do you wish you weren't blonde?" You know? It's kind of just what it is. I’m not proud or ashamed--instead I'm kind of comfortable.