Outspoken syndicated radio talk show host Stephanie Miller, an unabashed liberal Democrat and longtime gay rights supporter, announced on her August 13, 2010 program that she is a lesbian. Her decision to publicly reveal this aspect of her life to listeners came after years of wanting to maintain a certain level of privacy.
But Miller, who broadcasts from Los Angeles, has been heavily involved in the ongoing debate in California over repealing the state’s Proposition 8 ban on same sex marriage. With the August 4, 2010 federal district court ruling overturning the prohibition (which the Ninth Circuit U.S. Appeals Court temporarily stayed on August 16) and her advocacy of ending the U.S. military’s ban on homosexuals serving openly, she said the “perfect storm” of events prompted her to come out.
“I’ve reached my personal tipping point, I’m a gay woman,” Miller told her August 13, 2010 show.
Her private life already was known by family, friends, and co-workers, she said. Another source of encouragement was Chely Wright, a country/western singer who previously had disclosed that she was lesbian. Wright was a guest on Miller’s show, which started in 2004, the day of her announcement.
Seeing Conservatives Advocate Cause
A one-time stand-up comedienne and television host, Miller added she was affected by seeing conservatives argue for the right of same sex marriage under law, such as former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, and by her wariness over continuing not to say just how close she was to the issue.
Miller grew up Catholic in a conservative Republican family. Her late father, former U.S. Rep. William E. Miller of upstate New York, was GOP candidate Barry Goldwater’s running mate in the 1964 presidential election.
Frequently on her program, Miller, 48, has referred to the fact she’s never been married and to herself as “an elderly shut-in” or “slutty,” though mentioning different men whose views she favors as “future husbands.”
Among those she disparages, she routinely has termed Rush Limbaugh a “drug addled gasbag,” Bill O’Reilly a “megalomaniacal phone sex enthusiast,” political consultant Dick Morris a “prostitute toe sucker,” and likened Newt Gingrich’s voice to that of Muppet character Kermit the Frog.
At times conservatives have returned the fire. Tim Graham on the newsbusters.org site August 13, 2010 in “How Crazy? Actress Boasts She’d Kick Limbaugh In His Lady Parts, Michelle Malkin in the ‘Nut Sack’,” derided Miller’s daily show as “the oh-so-dignified radio home of slavish Obama talking points and crotch humor.”
Talking around Subject before Confronting It
In making her disclosure, Miller joked she had never pretended on the air to have a current boyfriend. Her view is that she is in a somewhat different position than MSNBC-TV host Rachel Maddow, whose sexuality was known at the time she first went on the air.
One of the more difficult aspects of her action, Miller said, is facing whether the perception of her and her role as a radio host might now change for some listeners. But she does not fault anyone for wanting to keep sexuality a private matter and praised singer Ricky Martin (who later said he was gay) for declining to discuss the subject when once pressed about it by Barbara Walters on a TV interview.
“The relative indifference Americans have these days about high-profile people coming out appears rooted not only in progressively tolerant views of gay people but in the rather cynical supposition that stars wait to come out until they see a financial benefit, or have little to lose,” Jeremy W. Peters wrote May 21, 2010 in “Coming Out: When Love Dares Speak, and Nobody Listen” in the New York Times. “Mr. Martin is past the prime of his career. Ms. Wright is promoting an album and a new book about her life as a closeted lesbian, and her revelation gives her exposure to a potential fan base outside traditional country audiences.”
Longtime Boston Radio Host Forced to Come Out
In 1994, under far different circumstances, veteran Boston talk show host David Brudnoy, a fixture on radio in the city for many years, disclosed in a newspaper interview that he had AIDS and was gay. Brudnoy, who was also a news commentator, college instructor, and film critic, had gone to extensive lengths to hide his medical condition and sexuality from the public.
He learned he had AIDS six years before he publicly revealed it, a decision precipitated by the drastic deterioration of his health and pneumonia he developed as someone who was HIV-positive. Brudnoy initially underwent some of his treatment in Washington, D.C., where he thought he wouldn’t be known.
His evening program was widely heard outside of Boston and New England because it was carried on WBZ Radio whose 50,000-watt signal can reach 38 states and some areas of Canada at night. An erudite libertarian who leaned conservative, Brudnoy’s views were often in contrast to the staunchly Democratic region where he was based.
Following his hospitalization and rumors quickly spreading that he had AIDS, Brudnoy decided to grant an interview to the Boston Globe in November 1994 that discussed his health and sexuality and his early efforts to conceal them. The New York Times subsequently carried its own story about Brudnoy and he became the subject of network programs, broadcast interviews, and articles in other publications.
He later chronicled his life in a 1997 autobiography, Life Is Not a Rehearsal. His health improved to the point where he returned to the airwaves and was able to continue for another nearly ten years until he succumbed to skin cancer at age 64 in December 2004.
In the case of Miller and Brudnoy, acknowledgement of their private life may or may not have come as a surprise to listeners. That consideration appears to be of little significance ultimately to the audience.
John Seidenberg - John Seidenberg has worked on newspapers, newsletters, radio news, and produced specialized news publications as well as freelance ...
