EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW: Meredith Baxter On Coming Out - "This Is Who I Am"
Posted on Mar 15, 2010 @ 06:36AM
Actress Meredith Baxter, who played mother Elyse Keaton on 80s TV hit Family Ties, turned heads last December when she told the world she is a lesbian.
RadarOnline.com caught up with Baxter on the red carpet of the Human Rights Campaign's star-studded gala in Los Angeles over the weekend, where she talked to us about what triggered her decision to make her sexuality public and how things have been for her since.
VIDEO: Meredith Baxter Comes Out As Lesbian
The HRC event was in part to bring awareness and support for the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Though Baxter, a thrice-married mother-of-five, told us she was “no spokesperson” for gay rights, she said she felt compelled to come out because she wasn't comfortable with the social message she was sending staying closeted.
"This is not just some little niche community," she told us. "This is a much broader spectrum of the U.S. and the world than we anticipated, so maybe it’s just not someone's narrow other point of view that has to prevail, that they can take in our cares and what we want.”
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She said the night prior to discussing her sexuality for the first time on TV and radio outlets, she wondered "Why am I doing this?"
Baxter told us that since coming out, "it has been very gratifying, to get some understanding."
PHOTOS: 2010 Human Rights Campaign Gala
She said she hoped her example could lead other closeted individuals to free themselves of their own shackles.
"It's permission,” she said. “Maybe just telling people, 'This is who I am,' maybe gives people permission to say who they are.”
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Be true to yourself!
Posted Mon, 03/15/2010 - 2:18pm
There are people who wear depends diapers ..would they discuss it openly and in great detail so they feel better abuot wearing them? No..it would be retarded and so is all this..live your life and keep it to yourself.
Posted Mon, 03/15/2010 - 11:07am
One less closted celeb whose chosen to live her authentic life as Oprah would say, unlike many of Ms O's A-List friends who are definitely not...well not publicly anyway...mores so in their on-set trailers, private planes, hotel rooms...
Posted Mon, 03/15/2010 - 10:57am
Why announce things like this to the whole world if you are so confident? You know you are going to bring people out of the woodwork and make your life a living hell so why try to prove anything?
Posted Mon, 03/15/2010 - 10:46am
I think there are some things that should be private...Keep it to yourself whatever it is..I don't want to hear all about it anymore than I want to hear about someone's root canal.
Posted Mon, 03/15/2010 - 10:39am
Meredith has always had a flair for the dramatic and feels the need to seek attention publicly for what the rest of us go through privately. First, Birney abused her. Now she is a lesbian. What's next?
Posted Mon, 03/15/2010 - 10:10am
so was she straight the first 100 years of her life, way back with birney, and now for her second 100 years she is gay; don't get it, and who cares.
Posted Mon, 03/15/2010 - 8:53am
I've been a fan of Meredith since "Bridget Loves Barney." Congrats on coming out and good luck.
Posted Mon, 03/15/2010 - 8:50am