Portia de Rossi

Actress

When it comes to out, proud, visible lesbians they don’t come much more recognisable than Portia de Rossi, actress and now wife of comedian Ellen DeGeneres. After struggling with her sexuality for years growing up in Geelong, Victoria, it seems Portia is finally feeling comfortable in her own skin.

"My sexuality is a part of me that I really like,” says Portia in an interview with Paper magazine. “But it's not the totality of me. It's not a passion of mine to become political in any way, but I do think it's important to see gay men and women having big careers and very full, rich lives."

Although once hesitant about coming out because of the effect it might have on her career, Portia is now both out, and successful in her own right. Making a break for the big time in the 1994 film Sirens with Hugh Grant and Elle Macpherson, de Rossi is well known for her ball-breaking ice-queen character, Nelle, in the popular television series ‘Ally McBeal’ and has also been receiving positive recognition for her role in the comedy ‘Arrested Development’.

Originally known as Amanda Rodgers, de Rossi says that in hindsight she thinks she changed her name because of difficulty with her sexuality, and feeling like she just didn’t ‘fit’. Now out to everyone, thanks in large part to the enormous publicity around her marriage to Ellen, de Rossi recently admitted that the only family member she wasn’t out to was her 98 year-old grandmother. When told, her grandmother said that it was ‘a bad day’, but later told her that she loved de Rossi no matter what and that she would like to meet Ellen.

De Rossi says that although she hasn’t yet, she would love to the chance to play a gay character in a television or film role. As a role model, de Rossi says she doesn’t feel overly influential, although she notes that teenage performers she meets in her work are often talking about their numerous gay friends, and that perhaps if she knew other gay people when she was younger she would have found coming to terms with it much easier. It wasn’t an easy road for de Rossi, coming out to her mother three times, once at 16 when her mother found a copy of ‘The Joys of Lesbian Sex’ under her bed.

Talking about her sexuality and coming-out, de Rossi says that there are some people who break down the barriers, and others – like herself - that simply follow in their wake.

“When I watched Ellen come out in ’97, my jaw was on the floor. I thought, there are some people who break the doors down, hold them open, and some people who walk right through. I always thought I was the latter. Thanks so much, everybody - thanks for making gay marriage legal, thank you for everything you’ve done - I’m just going to walk through that door.”

While that may be the case, de Rossi was a visible, high profile face for the ongoing fight against Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that banned gay marriage in the state.

Earlier this year she appeared in an anti-homophobia television commercial, talking about a gay related shooting at a California school. "Imagine if wearing make-up and a dress could get you killed,” says de Rossi. “For 15-year-old Lawrence King, that's just what happened."

She may not consider herself to be an activist, but just by living her life openly and standing tall, de Rossi is making a positive contribution in her own way.

By Joel Bryant