Ricki Lake

Ahhhhh - the good old days!

Didn’t she marry one?

R1 has a point.

The Gay Ally shit is such bullshit. You are either a smart and tolerant human being or your not. As a straight woman who loves gay dudes I would be insulted at being called an "ally". I'm just a cool lady that wasn't born in the 18th century and has good taste

I agree ^. I’ve always felt like “ally” was so disingenuous.

.....

R4 shut up sally jessy raphael!!

R5 and you too Jenny jones!

Does Ricki share that Divine taught her to walk in heels?

Well then, r9, she learned from the best.

She went to Ithaca College in the 80s and had all gay friends. It was not an act.

Go Ricki go Ricki!

She's a big old pothead now, too.

R13 really?!

Ricki Lake is a gem!

I first saw Fred Phelps on her show, he was so hateful I thought it had to be some sort of joke. She had him thrown off the stage, albeit too late.

She said Divine was the one who taught her to walk in heels, so she learned from the best.

When Ricki and hubby, Rob Sussman lived in the West Village the vibe was that hubby played for our team.

Ricki Lake has a gay man to thank for her career: John Waters.

[quote] "shut up sally jessy raphael!!"

Calm down, R7. We know for a fact that R4 isn't Sally Jesse Raphael. She even made it clear in her statement:

[quote] "wasn't born in the 18th century"

So, there you are. R4 is not Sally Jesse Raphael.

While these 90s and 2000s trash talk shows did not age well in a lot of ways they did give a platform to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual voices. The Club Kids went on Geraldo and Oprah had many episodes on gay people coming out. Even Tyra Banks had some episodes on the topic in the mid-2000s. I think it helped these talk shows allowed gay, lesbian and transsexual people to be able to explain themselves and give their perspective. It was baby steps.

Alice Hyatt was gay positive as well. I recall when Tommy’s scout leader was outed and his entire troupe abandoned him except for ignorant, innocent Tommy. At the conclusion, Alice granted license for Tommy to go camping with the scout leader.

And didn’t the scout leader ply Tommy with beer on their camping trip!?

Back then if you weren't a fire breathing homophobe, you were an ally. I think people forget how shitty it was

[quote] "Alice Hyatt was gay positive as well. I recall when Tommy’s scout leader was outed and his entire troupe abandoned him except for ignorant, innocent Tommy. At the conclusion, Alice granted license for Tommy to go camping with the scout leader."

It wasn't a scout leader, but a gay friend of Mel's who'd gone from college football player to actor in "B" pictures, R22.

Alice did eventually come to her senses.

[quote] "The Club Kids went on Geraldo and Oprah..."

Unfortunately. Amanda Lepore: fine. RuPaul: fine. Michael Alig: the addict/murderer attention whore shouldn't have been given any kind of platform at any point in his life.

R4, you might want to stop using the word "tolerant". That sounds like you just put up with the fact that there are gay people in society. I never say that I "tolerate straight women". See how stupid that sounds?

My coworker is related to her and said she has always been an incredibly cool person. (Side note - she bought my coworker a car out of the blue).