Lesbian

It has sometimes been said - a bit stereotypically - that sports are to lesbians what theater is to gay men. But the lesbian contribution to sports is still routinely dismissed. Take the reaction to the reported remarks by CBS golf commentator Ben Wright that lesbians were giving women's professional golf a bad name. The best defense that golf executives could muster was a vague denial that lesbians exist in the sport and the claim that lesbianism is not a "significant" issue. Really?

While ABC and TV comic Ellen DeGeneres have grabbed some headlines over their decision to have her character on "Ellen" come out as a lesbian, it's hardly the first time lesbian characters have shown up in prime time. Add movies to the list, and you've got enough actresses to fill Manhattan's Hogs and Heifers. Film actress Laura Dern, the daughter of Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern, will play Ellen's love interest on the April 30 episode. Dern is hardly new to risky roles - she's most recently played a pregnant woman in the center of an abortion rights controversy in a comedy called "Citizen Ruth.

What causes homosexuality? Hormones? No, we all have hormones, whether we are gay, heterosexual, or bisexual. Maybe an overbearing mother and a distant father? No, you say, there are just too many heterosexuals who love their parents, and whose parents love them and provided them with happy homes, for that one to make sense either. If you're heterosexual, you've probably never given much thought to what "made" you that way. Why should you? After all, you know you've always been that way, and furthermore you know it's natural for you. Who cares about the rest?

Television. It is perhaps the one thing all Americans have in common. The average American watches eight hours a day, children watch 12 hours a day and even those who pretend never to darken the dial seem to sneak in a sit-com now and again. But even though all of us watch TV, not all of us are portrayed on TV. TV may be as American as Mom and apple pie but what we watch does not reflect the demographics of the country. There are, for example, more non-whites on TV than ever before, but they are still stuck in the same roles - comedians and killers.

Blue Moon Productions is two converted bedrooms in an old stone twin, and Joan Levin. From this simple setup in East Oak Lane, Levin brings nationally known lesbian and gay entertainers to town. She is the promoter, but also, "I am the audience," says the 45-year-old impresario. "This whole area of women's music and comedy can be enjoyed by everybody," she says. "But it came about because we didn't have our own. " On Saturday, Blue Moon will present outspoken lesbian comic Kate Clinton on her "Non-Traditional Family Values Tour" for two shows at the University Museum's Harrison Auditorium.

Sharon Bottoms loves her son. By all accounts, two-year-old Tyler is a happy, healthy child with a big smile and blond hair, just like his mother's. There have been no charges of brutality against the child - no damaging reports from social workers of beatings or abuse. But Sept. 7, a Virginia Circuit Court judge ruled that Sharon Bottoms is "an unfit parent. " He ordered little Tyler be removed from his mother's care, legal custody for the child transferred permanently to Sharon Bottoms' mother, Kay. In 1993, few children are removed from their biological parent's care.

Someone asked me last week whether art should be political or not; his sister is a novelist. I said, "Is she political?" And he said, "No, she's an artist. " That's not something I agree with. It is not enough to be an artist. If you live in cataclysmic times, if the lightning rod of history hits you, then all art is political, and all art that is not consciously so still partakes of politics, if only to run away. I've learned in my adult life that the will to silence the truth is always and everywhere as strong as the truth itself, and so it is a necessary fight we will always be in: those of us who struggle to understand our truths and those who try to erase them.

By nearly all accounts, Ed Rendell has done much for Philadelphia as its mayor. I have a lot of personal regard for Rendell. I even think he deserves some of the seemingly endless praise heaped on him by the press, both local and national. What he does not deserve today is your vote if you are gay or lesbian, if you are a friend of the gay and lesbian community or if you are concerned about the struggle for equal rights. And that fact has me both angry and sad. Most of my discontent with Rendell goes back to how he handled the debacle over domestic partnership for gay and lesbian city workers.

THIS IS ONE of those stories that make me want to say "I'm sorry" to gay people for the nonsense they endure from some heterosexuals who give the rest of us straight people a bad name. So please, Alix Genter, accept my heartfelt apology that you were denied the chance to purchase the wedding gown of your dreams from Here Comes the Bride. The manager of the salon, in Somers Point, N.J., said she didn't want to be associated with your pending "illegal action. " Yep, that's actually how she referred to your wedding, next July, to your longtime partner (whose name you asked me to withhold in this column, as she's publicity-shy)

SAN FRANCISCO - Gays and lesbians are not entitled to the same heightened legal protection and scrutiny against discrimination as racial minorities and women in part because they are far from politically powerless and have ample ability to influence lawmakers, lawyers for a U.S. House group said in a federal court filing. The filing Friday in San Francisco's U.S. District Court comes in the case of a lesbian federal employee's lawsuit claiming the government wrongly denied health coverage to her same-sex spouse.