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Meredith Baxter to Speak at Los Angeles Outfest

Posted by: Natasia Rose on July 7, 2010.

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

07/07/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

Meredith Baxter, the Family Ties star that came out late in life, will be speaking about her coming out process and experiences at the Los Angeles Outfest. The LA Time is reporting that the festival starts this Thursday and runs until July 18 and that Baxter will be addressing participants on July 17th. Baxter will sit on a panel called, “Coming Out in Hollywood.”

There has been a ton of debate about “Coming Out in Hollywood” especially with the Newsweek controversy, where a gay writer wrote that gays can’t play straight. In fact, last year at the Los Angeles Outfest, there were two incidents where out, gay, successful Hollywood men suggested to aspiring gays to stay in the closet. The first was Todd Holland, an openly gay Emmy-winning director, who told an audience that he believed young, gay male actors should “stay in the closet.” Don Roos (“The Opposite of Sex”) said that he thought gay actors should not come out because it can distract from the characters they play on-screen.

Esteemed publicist, Howard Bragman will also be sitting on the panel with Baxter and he had this to say to the LA Times:

Since Meredith came out last Thanksgiving, more celebrities have come out than at any time in history,” said Bragman, citing Hayes, Ricky Martin and Chely Wright as examples. “We’re also at a time when we have people like Neil Patrick Harris and Cheyenne Jackson, out gay men, playing heterosexual men with great credibility.”

It’s surprising that this is even an issue in the gay community, whether to be out or not. It’s crazy that successful gay men would tell others like them not to bother, not to try to live honestly. We all need to do what we need to do to survive and make money, but living a lie is never the answer. This isn’t the 1940′s. The time to be visible and stand up for ourselves is now.

Ooo, this got serious. Who better to march us into Hollywood then Meredith Baxter? Everyone loves her! She was Lifetime! She played the mom who had the lesbian daughter and made everything about her daughter a huge problem even though in reality Baxter’s character was an alcoholic! That was really what was going to ruin the family not the lesbian! That movie was kickass and I bet her panel at Outfest is going to be too.

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