The Advocate profiles Joy Behar

I’ve loved Joy Behar since the first time I saw her on The View back in 1997 and besides creator Barbara Walters, she is the only original panelist remaining. She’s better than ever on that show and since last fall, has had her own terrific showcase each weeknight on HLN: The Joy Behar Show.

Brandon Voss spent some time on the set of the nightly show with Behar and has a nice profile in the current issue of The Advocate. Here is the first part of it:

On a cold Thursday afternoon in Manhattan, Joy Behar is taping an interview with financial expert Suze Orman.

“It’s a disgrace,” Behar says of the fact that Orman and longtime partner Kathy Travis can’t legally marry. “I mean, what kind of bullshit is that?” she continues off-camera during a break, sipping Diet Coke through a lipstick-smudged straw.

Later, while chatting with guest Joan Rivers about their mutual love of Bette Davis, Behar exclaims, “We’re like a gay man’s wet dream!”

It’s just another day on the set of The Joy Behar Show, which debuted last September on HLN, CNN’s sister network. Never one to hide from a hot gay topic — she memorably criticized the Ukrainian government for not letting Elton John adopt an HIV-positive orphan in a post on CNN.com — Behar devoted one of her first shows to a discussion on the National Equality March and President Obama’s promises to the gay community with special guests Bryan Batt and Dan Savage. She is also nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for an episode about gays and the Mormon Church that featured ex-Mormon Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black.

“I see myself as an ally of the gay community for sure, but not an extraordinary ally,” says the outspoken 67-year-old host and New York Times best-selling author (Joy Shtick: Or What Is the Existential Vacuum and Does It Come With Attachments?) from behind her desk in a windowless office at Time Warner Center that’s as modest as she is.

“It’s not like I’m on some kind of a mission; it’s just the way my brain works.”

For example, it was the former full-time comic’s idea to assemble a panel of gay comedians to discuss the perks of coming out to family over the holidays.

“I’m always interested in what people haven’t thought about before, and the average straight person hasn’t thought about the pain involved in coming out to your parents and the difficulties of being a gay kid in a straight world. My philosophy is that parents should be asking their kids, ‘Are you gay?’ When the boy’s playing with dolls and the girl’s playing with trucks, a light should go off in your head and you should ask the question when it’s the appropriate time.”

Go to Advocate.com to read the rest of this terrific story!