Out lesbian actresses Jill Bennett & Cathy DeBuono speak out for the first time on leaving AfterEllen, mainstream fame in Hollywood, the story behind popular rumors, avoiding the lesbian urge to merge and being big fish in the small “celesbian” pond.

To shed some light on DADT as it relates to gay women, Autostraddle has been fortunate enough to snag an interview with Lissa Young, an insanely intelligent, aware, reflective and accomplished woman. Lissa graduated from West Point in 1986.

“Living here and having grown up here you almost forget it’s so different. I never had to worry about walking down the street with my girlfriend holding my hand. And if this show — if me coming out — helps one person, then it was worth it.”

“When time came for them to watch Top Model, which they did, I think they started seeing gayness in a normal and great light, because people liked me for that on the show. That was an attractive part of me on the show, it wasn’t anything embarrassing or perverted, and it was just a great thing. I think they started seeing me through the eyes of all the accepting people.”

“Well, a friend of mine saw me playing at some point and said, ‘You know, it’d be interesting if you took paint and put it on your fingers and and left a mark of where your fingers traveled on the guitar.’ … I kind of took this idea for a minute and thought well, OK.. That was the first seed planted.”

“The desire to be on a sketch show has been fulfilled, and I get to be on one which I fit into instead of being the brunt of the jokes.”

Haviland Stillwell, who you may know from the world-famous Haviland & Riese Vlogs, or perhaps from Broadway’s Les Miserables and/or Fiddler on the Roof, will be performing her one-woman spectacular of audio-visual singtastic delights, “West Coast Debutante” in Los Angeles at the Upright Cabaret on April 23rd. Because Haviland is both an international rising superstar and my BFF, I was able to sit down with her cyber-coastally and have a little AIM Chat about her big show, lauded on the website as: “a sassy night ranging from Kurt Weill to Madonna, from upbeat to out of control and beyond. Come see this versatile, charming and adorable “tight little ball of spunk, bad ass, and class.” Who doesn’t like tight little things? That’s right, we all love tight little things. Here goes!

Susan Miller is kind of awesome, and so is her new webseries Anyone But Me. Get the scoop with the Autostraddle interview.

When we here at Autostraddle HQ heard that Hesta Prynn (alias Julie Potash) was among the illustrious performers at SXSW 2009, we knew immediately that she’d be a perfect candidate for our first Beat on the Street interview.

DeAnne Smith, a New York native who lives in Montreal, is a superstar comedian who is currently amassing many awards and honors that you may not have heard of [it’s not a Nobel] but are nevertheless important and indicative of fame and stardom. She has appeared on NBC’s Last Comic Standing and in the “Just for Laughs” Comedy Festival.