- Meredith Baxter
Interesting how every media source except one (that I found) treated Meredith Baxter’s coming out in a very matter-of-fact manner.
First, I think all the signs were there. Look at the list of films she starred in for Lifetime:
• Her Final Fury: Betty Broderick, the Last Chapter (1992) (TV) …. Betty Broderick
• A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story (1992) (TV) …. Betty Broderick
• A Mother’s Justice (1991) (TV) …. Lila
• My Breast (1994) (TV) …. Joyce Wadler
• After Jimmy (1996) (TV) …. Maggie Stapp
Second: all those failed, heterosexual marriages. Being straight? She just wasn’t any good at it.
While most news outlets covered it, the headlines were mostly pretty neutral. Here’s a sample from a variety of sources around the country:
Boston Globe: “Meredith Baxter comes out”
Los Angeles Times: “‘Family Ties’ Meredith Baxter is a lesbian”
Dallas Morning News: “Meredith Baxter’s revelation”
NPR: “Meredith Baxter: Coming out is both personal and political”
NY Daily News: “Meredith Baxter, mom on TV’s ‘Family Ties’, comes out on ‘Today’ show: ‘I am a lesbian'”
Then, there’s Fox
Always out for a sensationalist headline, Fox broadcast the news like Baxter’s coming out was news that would change the world.
Fox: Family Ties Shocker: Meredith Baxter says “I’m a lesbian mom”
The biggest shocker? After 20 years, the cast is still friendly. Everyone knew for years. A group of people who worked together like each other. Accept each other. Are happy when their friends are in healthy relationships. Well, I guess Fox didn’t see the signs. That headline writer probably doesn’t watch Lifetime: Television for gay men.
In related news, Brian Bonsall, who played adorable little Andy Keaton on Family Ties, was arrested for attacking his best friend with a bar stool this weekend. That follows him being on the lam for a 2008 court appearance he skipped. So I guess the lesbian is pretty well-adjusted, overall.
David Taffet writes, ” all those failed, heterosexual marriages.Being straight? She just wasn’t any good at it.” Liz Taylor, among many others, had more failed heterosexual marriages than Baxter, so I have to ask, “Does that make Lizzy a lesbian also?”
Frankly, I don’t care one way about Baxter’s sexual preferences, but Taffet’s “logic” I find disturbing.
Didn’t mean to insult all the happily many-times divorced heterosexual readers. It was nothing but humor. Her divorces added to the list of man-bashing Lifetime films, to me, add up to no big surprise.