Openly gay actress Meredith Baxter will headline a panel on gay stars in Hollywood at Los Angeles' gay and lesbian film festival Outfest.

The panel, titled Coming Out In Hollywood, will also include openly gay Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman. Bragman has built a career out of helping celebrities come out of the closet. The first client he helped was actor Dick Sergeant in 1991. He's also behind the recent self-outings of Chaz Bono as transgender and country singer Chely Wright as lesbian.

Baxter, who has been married three times and is the mother of five, told NBC Today Show host Matt Lauer in December that she's been dating women for the past seven years.

“I am a lesbian and it was a later-in-life recognition,” she told Lauer. “Some people would say, well, you're living a lie and, you know, the truth is – not at all. This has only been for the past seven years.”

The Family Ties mother went on national television to speak about her sexuality after becoming tabloid fodder. Last November, the National Enquirer reported she was spotted aboard an all-lesbian cruise. Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton kept up the pressure when he published photos of Baxter and her girlfriend Nancy Locke at his website PerezHilton.com.

Baxter has since said she was ready to come out gay.

“This is a political act … If anyone knows someone who's gay or lesbian … they're less likely to vote against them to take away their rights. I can be that lesbian you know now …,” she told Lauer.

Outfest opens July 8th with Howl, which stars James Franco as quintessential beat generation poet and pioneering gay rights advocate Allen Ginsberg.