Openly gay actress Meredith Baxter
considered coming out gay in a newspaper ad.
Baxter headlined a panel Saturday on
gay stars in Hollywood at Outfest, Los Angeles' gay and lesbian film
festival.
Also on the Coming Out In Hollywood
panel were openly
gay Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman, actors Doug Spearman (Noah's
Arc) and Jonathan Slavin (Better off Ted) and director Don
Roos (Opposite of Sex).
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.
In talking about her December coming
out, Baxter said celebrity blogger Perez Hilton and tabloid The
Enquirer gave her the final push she needed, but added that she
had already considered coming out in a newspaper ad.
“I was sort of entertaining the
idea,” she said. “I thought I might put an ad in the paper, kind
of like a little birth announcement that would say, 'OK, I'm gay –
Meredith.'”
Baxter added that she was already on
the path to coming out when photographs of her and partner Nancy
Locke traveling aboard an all-lesbian cruise surfaced.
The Family Ties mother came out
gay on NBC's Today Show and told host Matt Lauer that she's
been dating women for the past seven years.
Source: Greg
in Hollywood.