TV Mom Comes Out as a Lesbian

   Elyse Keaton is a lesbian. Well, not exactly. Meredith Baxter, who played the mother on the 1980s sitcom Family Ties is a lesbian.
   In an interview with The Advocate, the Emmy-nominated actress talks about her three marriages, her first experience with women and why it was time to finally come out of the closet.
   “It was time,” the 62-year-old actress tells the magazine. “And promoted probably from the attention brought from having been on the cruise, I knew that something was coming from that. So I thought, ‘Let me just beat them to it and tell it in my words instead of someone’s made-up words.’”
   The cruise in question is the Sweet Caribbean Cruise, which she boarded in November with thousands of other lesbians. Baxter assumed she would remain under the radar, like she has for the past 13 years since coming out to herself. But, the iconic actress was immediately recognized when she boarded the ship with Nancy Locke, her partner of four years.
   Since wrapping the role as Michael Keaton’s liberal mother on Family Ties, Baxter has appeared in several made-for-television movies, including the critically acclaimed My Breast and A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story.
   Baxter admits she was “hiding in plain sight” for several years and knew it was just a matter of time before she would have to come out of the closet.
   For the full interview, visit Advocate.com.