I’m probably aging myself, but I’ll cop to remembering the first few seasons of Rosanne, and I also remember identifying with Sara Gilbert’s character Darlene. Darlene was smart and a little weird and she was often overshadowed by her older, prettier sister. She was pretty much the classic middle child – but that wasn’t what I identified with. I liked that she seemed different, and that it seemed okay. Since then, I’ve seen her on various shows – like as a rape victim struggling with PTSD on Law & Order: SVU – and I’ve always had a moment of “What ever happened to…?” Well, as it turns out, Sara Gilbert has been living a quiet life with her lesbian partner and their two kids. Sara spoke openly for the first time about being a lesbian while she sat down to promote her new talk show panel, based on The View, called The Talk.

This is no shocker, but Roseanne alum Sara Gilbert is officially a lesbian, it was revealed today at Television Critics Association summer press tour in Los Angeles. Gilbert’s sexuality was, for all intents and purposes, previously an open secret, like it is with so many other celebrities in Hollywood. (I’m not at liberty to publish names, but make a few guesses yourself — you probably won’t be wrong). In years past, publicists would ask that stories about Gilbert’s two children kindly didn’t mention her partner.

But hark! Today, Gilbert sat on a panel to talk about the new mother-rific riff on The View — called The Talk — that she’s executive producing and co-hosting with Julie Chen, Leah Remini, Holly Robinson Peete, Sharon Osbourne, and Marissa Jaret Winokur, and she mostly didn’t sidestep the subject. When asked if she thought it’d be easier to be out in a talk show forum rather than as a character on a scripted show, Gilbert said, “This is a whole new world for me,” and added later, “I’m not an expert on this, or I don’t analyze these things. I’m just sort of living my life. I plan to put my heart and soul into this show, and I plan to continue acting, and I don’t think it will be a problem.” Being out, that is. “I don’t ever really think of things as out or in,” Gilbert said today. “I just think I am who I am, and when topics come up that are appropriate, I’ll talk about them and share when it seems right.”

To that, I say: Bravo to Gilbert! It was a tad strange when, last week, CBS sent out the press release about the new talk show and mentioned the husbands of the rest of the hosts, but only mentioned Gilbert’s children. Gilbert cleared up why there was no mention of her girlfriend, Allison Adler, a television producer. That decision to omit Allison, Gilbert explained, “came from me. CBS would write whatever I wanted.” And she added: “I’ve been acting my whole life, and I’ve never really discussed my personal life. This is a talk show” — one focusing on motherhood and parenting, no less, which she does with someone else. “So obviously,” she continued, “I’m going to be discussing my life more, and I felt that the first place I wanted to do it wasn’t in a CBS press release. It just seemed impersonal, and I felt like I’d rather come in person and talk to you about all that stuff here.” Classy move, truly.

Gilbert shared her pet peeve about Allison — specifically, that she’s taller and looks better in clothes because of it. And there’s lots more to come in that regard, judging by the candid format of this new show. I’m excited to hear more about the way Sara and Allison raise their two adorable children, mostly because they seem like good ladies and great representatives of lesbian moms everywhere. Does the news that Sara is officially out as a lesbian shock you? Will the fact that Sara loves the ladies make you tune in — or tune out — of The Talk?

[From Entertainment Weekly]

This isn’t quite as late an exit from the glass closet as Meredith Baxter, who publicly came out at the age of 62, but it’s still interesting, to me at least. I know I’ve gotten in trouble for talking sh-t about people like Anderson Cooper, but I really do feel that it’s every gay person’s right to choose the time and place in which they “come out.” My problem comes when they lie about it, or when everything becomes about the wink and the nod. Sara Gilbert wasn’t really famous enough to give a million interviews where she’s had to pretend that she’s straight – her glass closet seems more about the occasional omission rather than outright lies. But it’s good to see her come out and talk about it. Good for her!