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.”