The Advocate: You just did a hilarious episode of Hot In Cleveland. Was your first lesbian cruise with Betty White and Valerie Bertinelli everything you thought it would be?
Sandra Bernhard: It was everything and more. All of the ladies on the show are hysterical and I really connected with everyone. It’s hard because they are doing one episode after the next so it can be tough to come in as a guest star. They went above and beyond. I love Laura San Giacomo (Bernhard’s girlfriend in the episode) too. I’ve known her a long time and she is a class act. I’d love to come back.

You were my very first lesbian experience, so to speak. Your character, Nancy, on Roseanne was the first lesbian I ever saw on TV.
I think Roseanne’s approach to everything was so revolutionary and people just got into it because they related to the blue-collar experience back then a lot more than they do now in a certain way. Whatever she talked about was fresh and new and we never approached it in a heavy, political way. It was fun and accessible and still within the realm of what her show was about. She never took it to a place where people felt threatened by it.

Did you get a good response from the gay community back then?
Not particularly. With a lot of gays back then, you had to be political. I was one of the first performers to walk a line with sexuality and I got a lot of shit back then. If you didn’t fly your flag a certain way, you were a traitor in the community. I played with a lot of images in my show, so it was never black or white and still isn’t. Sexuality is fluid and people have a lot of emotions about it. I’ve always rebelled from sticking to a didactic emotion about gayness. Gay people enjoyed Roseanne because it was fun and smart, but I wasn’t particularly recognized for it.

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