Lesbian News hailed Kulp for creating a role model for young lesbians in the 1960s with the Jane Hathaway character, who was intelligent, decisive, respected, self-sufficient--and a member of a women-only bird-watching club.

Sponsor Message.

While Kulp may have projected a lesbian image in her work, she did not proclaim her own lesbian identity publicly. Like many other actors of her era, including Rock Hudson, with whom she worked in Strange Bedfellows, she undoubtedly realized that revealing her sexual orientation could seriously jeopardize--indeed, possibly end--a career.

In a 1989 interview with Boze Hadleigh, Kulp was painfully circumspect in speaking of her sexual identity.

"As long as you reproduce my reply word for word, and the question, you may use it," she told him. "I'd appreciate it if you'd let me phrase the question. There is more than one way. Here's how I would ask it: 'Do you think that opposites attract?' My own reply would be that I'm the other sort--I find that birds of a feather flock together. That answers your question." Never in the course of the interview did she refer to herself as a lesbian.

When not focusing on what Hadleigh called "the Big Question," which Kulp corrected to "the Fatal Question" in terms of show business, she spoke more freely, decrying the fact that when the media present human interest stories "they mean heterosexual human interest, exclusively"; responding to a question about "a significant other" in her life with a coy "Into each life a little romance must fall"; and expressing admiration for gay Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, who, she noted, had been outed.

Asked if she would have come out as a member of Congress, Kulp replied, "Not voluntarily. If I were outed, then I would not deny it." After further discussion she added, "If one is past fifty or sixty, it's almost like saying that most of your life you've been too embarrassed to admit it or to speak up."

Unfortunately for Kulp, she lived in a time and a culture in which an acknowledgment of one's homosexuality was defined as an admission, and she worked in an industry in which speaking up about it constituted answering a "fatal question" professionally.

American television sitcoms have consistently reflected the presence of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people, often in distorted and stereotyped ways, but occasionally in ways that acknowledge our humanity and complexity.

Lesbian actresses have played a significant role in Hollywood, but their contributions have rarely been recognized or spoken of openly; the "lavender marriage" is by no means a relic of the past.

Responsible for many of the most popular and critically praised films of Hollywood's golden age, George Cukor became typed as a "woman's director," a phrase that may have also alluded to his homosexuality.

Handsome, athletic, graceful, and charismatic, actor Errol Flynn was widely rumored to enjoy sexual relations with men as well as women.

Openly gay U. S. congressman Barney Frank has been a leader not only in the cause of gay and lesbian rights but also on issues including fair housing, consumer rights, banking, and immigration.

A product of Hollywood's star system, Rock Hudson became an international symbol of heterosexuality, wearing a mask until it was savagely ripped off when he was diagnosed with AIDS.

Less well-known for being herself than for the many memorable personages she "becomes" during her performances, comedienne Lily Tomlin has long been a supporter of gay and lesbian rights, but only recently came out herself.