Who from the l word is gay
Leisha Hailey of The L Word Came Out at 19 and Never Looked Back
When the first episode of The L Synonyms aired on Showtime in 2004, there had never been a show quite like it. Sure, there were shows about women discussing their romances over breakfast (see: Sex and the City), and LGBTQ+-centric dramas (like Queer as Folk), but The L Word focused specifically on the lives of lesbians.
And on this show about queer women, Leisha Hailey, who played Alice Pieszecki, a peppy talk demonstrate host, was the series' only openly queer cast member (though that later changed—starring in The L Word helped Kate Moenning come into her possess identity). Hailey had been out since the age of 19, when she moved from Nebraska to start her life in New York.
Along with costars Moenning and Jennifer Beals, Hailey reprised her ethics on The L Word: Generation Q, which will return for a third season this year. The L Word: Generation Q pays homage to the original's trailblazing legacy, while acknowledging how much has changed since 2004 for queer people.
Below, Hailey recalls her childhood in Nebraska, coming out as a teenager, and then having to come out all over again when she became a
The L Word
- Show runtime: 6 seasons, 2005-2009
- Shown on: Showtime
- Creators: Ilene Chaiken, Michele Abbott, Kathy Greenberg
- Queer characters: Bette Porter (Jennifer Beals), Tina Kennard (Laurel Holloman), Alice Pieszecki (Leisha Hailey), Jenny Schecter (Mia Kirshner), Dana Fairbanks (Erin Daniels), Jodi Lerner (Marlee Matlin, Shane McCutcheon (Katherine Moenning), Carmen de La Pica Morales (Sarah Shahi), Helena Peabody (Rachel Shelley), Max Sweeney (Daniela Sea)
- Sexualities: Creators Ilene Chaiken, Michele Abbott, and Kathy Greenberg are all lesbians. Cast members Leisha Hayley and Alexandra Hedison are lesbians and Laurel Holloman is bisexual person. Mia Kirshner, Karina Lombard, Katherine Moenning, and Sarah Shahi have all been rumored to be male lover or bi but contain not officially stated their sexuality. Jennifer Beals, Erin Daniels, Rachel Shelley and Pam G
Do the Writers of ‘The L Word’ Know Actual Lesbians?
Inspired by the sudden influx of homosexual films, characters, and directors in 1992, film scholar and general badass B. Ruby Rich coined the term “New Queer Cinema.” From Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct to Derek Jarman’s Edward II, from Tom Kalin’s Swoon to Gregg Araki’s The Living End, it was hip to be queer!
Prior to this rush of queerness, gay and womxn loving womxn representation was limited, to say the least. For much of American motion picture history, gay and lesbian actors and directors were often closeted, gay and lesbian subplots cleverly concealed to the average viewer, if they were there at all, while gay and woman loving woman characters usually existed solely for comic relief and/or to be killed off.All of which means… hooray for homosexual culture in the 1990s!
Except for the fact that someone forgot to comprise women.*
If New Homosexual Cinema helped specify art house cinema during the 1990s, the concept of lesbian invisibility helped define New Gender non-conforming Cinema. Gay directors and gay actors were often male, and the films themselves often revolved around male wish. Even in terms of money, mor
The original L Word had a very specific point of view when it came to men, and that aim of view was that all told, men were very bad. While it was allegedly untrue that all lesbians were man-haters, it was unfortunately factual that all lesbians were in truth surrounded by terrible men doing terrible things all the time and therefore had no selection but to loathe the whole lot of ’em. Furthermore, the original series was hilariously limited when it came to naming minor male characters. and Gen Q continued in that tradition by giving new characters names already used on the authentic series. Because who cares it’s just men right????
Infamously, The L Word also agreed that all trans men were bad, but, then Generation Qcame along with the bold argument that gender non-conforming men were not actually bad, but were instead often boring. Is this progress? Who can say.
I gathered my fellow television editors (Kayla, Carmen and Drew) to vote on the men of The L Word and Generation Q. What follows is our maestro assessment of the landscape.
44. Gomey
Mark’s Foremost Friend / Show Partner
It is far more difficult to seize the prize of “worst man” in the L W
The L Word's Katherine Moennig realised she was a lesbian while working on the show
If, like me, you've been gobbling up news of The L Word: Generation Qreboot since you heard it was happening, then it's likely you'll also be obsessed with Katherine Moennig. Kate has played Shane McCutcheon on the show since it began 15 years ago. And anyone who's watched The L Word will tell you Shane was an iconic nature. Shane was responsible for many LGBTQ+ women figuring out they weren't vertical, and also had a shag haircut years before they became trendy.
Kate Moennig doesn't give interviews all that often but she just sat down for an open chat with RuPaul and Michelle Visage on RuPaul's podcast, What's the Tee?
When RuPaul asked her if she always knew she was a lesbian, and Kate said, "Well, I grew up Catholic and I went to Catholic school for 13 years so I wasn’t really in an environment to explore that, especially at that time in the ‘80s and the ‘90s.
Leisha Hailey (left) who plays Alice on The L Word, and her pal and cast member Katherine Moennig
"Now I believe if I was in lofty school now I would see it more. Help then you didn’t. That shit did n