Stephanie Miller says she came out
lesbian last month because “it was time for me to stop cheering gay
rights from the sidelines.”
In
a new interview published Wednesday with Chicago gay weekly Windy
City Times, the 48-year-old progressive radio host talks
about what motivated her to come out gay.
“For me it became time to stop
cheering gay rights from the sidelines and step down on the
battlefield and put a human face on it,” Miller said. “I'm just
one more, but I think that's part of what moves any civil rights
battle forward is people putting a human face on it.”
During a broadcast last month on the
syndicated radio program The Stephanie Miller Show, the former
comedienne said she had grown concerned about her ability to speak on
issues such as gay marriage and open gay military service
“authentically” without offering a full disclosure.
Miller credited openly lesbian country
singer Chely Wright, with whom she has become good friends in recent
months, with inspiring her to come out publicly.
“And there are people who inspired
me, like my friend Chely Wright, who's the country singer who just
came out,” Miller told the paper. “We got to be friends and she
was able to speak to it in a way that I hadn't sort of heard before
because I said on the air I've always been a very private person and
I've never said 'I'm straight' or 'I'm gay' or made up boyfriends.”