Melissa Etheridge and Rachel Maddow Question if We’re All OK in “Do Lesbians Give a Damn”

I missed this news earlier this week (because clearly, no one loves me) and I don’t want you to make my mistake! So if you will please, allow me to set the scene: On Tuesday, it was National Coming Out Day. Rachel Maddow and Melissa Etheridge were on Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happens Live” and he made the lesbian icons with much better things to do, rank our silly little pop culture internet lives. It’s great.

Questions I thought while watching, in order:

  • Melissa Etheridge is so swaggy? Effortlessly. 90s dykes live their best lives.
  • Rachel Maddow and Melissa Etheridge both have perfect lesbian slouches. Should I practice my slouch more? Is that a thing one… practices?
  • Melissa Etheridge: “[Halloween] is the only time we want to put make up on, ever.” M’am!? Speaking on behalf of high femmes everywhere, this is erasure!
  • They do not care that Madonna maybe came out in a TikTok over the weekend, which? Fair. But also it got Autostraddle a lot of hits this week. So.
  • Rachel Maddow on Billy Eichner’s Bros: “I’m just excited that there’s a big studio gay movie now… because that means the lesbians will get one in 40 years.” (This is not a question. She’s correct.)
  • The next set of Andy’s prompts involves a brand of white people pop culture that I know nothing about: White people, y’all alright over there?
  • OK I’m back in focus! Lesbian Velma!! Is this most Rachel Maddow has ever laughed in her entire life? Did I ever know her laugh was this sexy? Should I be thirsting for this nerd on this website right now?
  • Melissa Etheridge believes that the lesbian community is holding the up base for the gay mourning of Queen Elizabeth, umm????
  • Rachel Maddow saw Tatiana Maslany as a 7ft green She-Hulk and immediately said “gimme!” (again, this is not a question)
  • I’m of an age where I should know better, but will I mature past the phase where I just want Rachel Maddow to make me waffles and read me the Sunday headlines in her robe?
  • I will not.

There’s also a seven-minute after show that includes such greatest hits as Melissa Etheridge recalling the time she out partied Wesley Snipes. Enjoy!

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Carmen Phillips

Carmen Phillips is Autostraddle's former editor in chief. She began at Autostraddle in 2017 as a freelance team writer and worked her way up through the company, eventually becoming the EIC from 2021-2024. A Black Puerto Rican feminist writer with a PhD in American Studies from New York University, Carmen specializes in writing about Blackness, race, queerness, politics, culture, and the many ways we find community and connection with each other.  During her time at Autostraddle, Carmen focused on pop culture, TV and film reviews, criticism, interviews, and news analysis. She claims many past homes, but left the largest parts of her heart in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, NY. And there were several years in her early 20s when she earnestly slept with a copy of James Baldwin’s “Fire Next Time” under her pillow. To reach out, you can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram, or her website.

Carmen has written 716 articles for us.

9 Comments

    • I don’t know who Andy Cohen is but I have 2 questions:

      1. IS HE AN ANDROID?! He gives me the heebie jeebies.

      2. How does Carmen share my exact Rachel Maddow fantasy?!

      • If you think Andy Cohen’s weird here, you should watch him co-host the CNN New Year’s Eve show. (Or maybe not).

        I think he’s best known for producing the Real Housewives franchise and being BFFs with Anderson Cooper, who is also a little android like, now that I think about it.

  4. I love Rachel Maddow and I want to announce it publicly. I am certain that we would be an excellent match and she is at the top of my list of “Celebrities I am allowed to marry if things don’t work out with this 22 year marriage.” I know it’s a very unlikely set of circumstances but it burns in my soul… Oh, you want to know who else is on the list? Why, how could I deny you what you want?

    Jon Stewart
    John Cusack
    k.d. lang
    Roberta Colindrez
    Kelly McCormack

    I just go crazy over a soft butch! Plumbing doesn’t matter, but glasses and specialized knowledge are a big turn on!

  6. The best part of this is that for the Madonna question they were all like…we already knew about this. Which we did.

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