Out actress and director Amanda Bearse played Marcy D’Arcy or “Married With Children.” She lives in Atlanta and was profiled in a wonderful interview in Southern Voice.
One piece that was of interest to Dallas readers was her impressions of our city. She said she prefers living in a city like Atlanta because of the community but said she travels to Dallas and is always impressed by our community.
Sovo: What do you think of the gay scene in Atlanta? How does this town compare to being gay in other larger cities?
Amanda: Surprisingly, some of the bigger cities don’t have as much of a cohesive community as Atlanta, but I find this community to be fairly disenfranchised with men and women. There is a divide. One of the cities I travel to is Dallas, TX, and it’s like ‘gayville,’ but it’s all men and women in clubs and restaurants. It’s all about community, and I was really struck by that. I don’t have a sense of cohesiveness in New York. Things change so much, but there has always been a real separation of men and women. In L.A. there is also pretty much a separation. In Seattle there are a lot of lesbians. I think I heard a statistic recently that there are more lesbians than dogs there, haha.
We know we have a great community here and hope Bearse will spend more time in Dallas, although her new wife lives in Seattle.
I have friends and business associates in many cities and states who have told me the same thing about Dallas. To me however our cohesiveness goes beyond men and women. I found that our cohesiveness includes gay and straight. I noticed that many decades ago and have heard that about us from others.