# Bridget Loves Bridget (Meredith Baxter comes out) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2009, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704 "2009-12-02T14:52:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/21 "2009-12-03T01:37:41Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Most of the time when celebs come out as gay I say “no shit!” but this one was a shocker. Not a shocker in a bad way but a shocker in that I wouldn’t have guessed it. > > Glad she’s got support, tho. And hopefully since she’s one of those “well loved” celebs (I think?) the public will support her too. That’s all well and good but (and I know I sound like a cynical asshole for suggesting this) what does Meredith Baxter now have going on career-wise? She doesn’t have to fear much of a homophobic backlash since she’s at the stage of her career where she’s mostly cashing residuals from “Family Ties”. If she had done this 20 (or even 15) years ago, that would 've been gutsy. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/22 "2009-12-03T02:11:39Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > It sounded to me like it was a case of “come out or be outed” and she was none too happy to go public. It’s not fair! It’s not fair! Oh, wait, that was Burgess Meredith. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/23 "2009-12-03T02:18:42Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > I totally agree with this. In the past you were pressured to make a choice AND stick with it. > > Now no one cares about labels, especially young people. A lot of young ones have the attitude of “I’m horny and it doesn’t matter what sex if all I’m looking to do is get off quickly.” > > There’s less stigma today so it’s becoming a matter of “Whoever’s available at the moment.” And yet I suspect that anyone suggesting that “homosexuality is a choice” will still be quickly tarred and feathered around here. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/24 "2009-12-03T08:53:33Z")
So she contracted the gay from her contractor? I thought it had something to do with fixing houses. > [@Sitnam](#): > > How do you find out that late in life that you’re a lesbian? She says she wasn’t ‘living a lie’, but I have a hard time believing she wasn’t in deep denial and to me that’s ‘living a lie’. Living a lie means the denial is very shallow, not deep. Lots of people come out late in life. Probably she isn’t strictly lesbian but somewhere close to bisexual. Or it’s possible social conditioning is such that it didn’t even occur to her that the idea of gayness could apply to herself, until very late she thought about it and had that ‘aha’ moment. It’s amazing the things that might never occur to you until they are pointed out by someone, and then they suddenly become obvious. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/25 "2009-12-03T09:17:37Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > And yet I suspect that anyone suggesting that “homosexuality is a choice” will still be quickly tarred and feathered around here. Not the same thing at all. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/26 "2009-12-03T11:08:09Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Uh, maybe with some people, sexual preference is a lot more fluid than is commonly thought. So perhaps she wasn’t gay & then came to a point in life where she was- maybe only with her present partner. She said that she had an affair with a woman prior to her third and last marriage to a man. So there were clearly inklings, but she wasn’t in a place where she could accept her truth. Kelly McGillis tells a similar story, she went through two failed marriages and affairs with both men and women before and after before she was able to look at herself in the mirror and say “I’m a lesbian.” I’m really bothered that this is yet another gossip blog outing. I mean, of all people for Perez Hilton to feel it necessary to push out of a glass closet (Baxter wasn’t exactly hiding her relationship, after all) why her and why now? Cheap and tacky, Perez, but then, that’s him in a nutshell. ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/27 "2009-12-03T12:12:47Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > What would arch-conservative Alex P. Keaton think of his mother and her new general contractor girlfriend? Ha, that’d be a very special episode I’d like to see. Not much more than a wag of the finger. ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/28 "2009-12-03T12:19:45Z")
Who gives a shit?? Seriously. Pit thread below. > **[Meredith Baxter is gay? Who gives a fuck???](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=542355)** > > Is being gay still so “taboo” and “out there” that a fucking Z-list celebrity like Meredith Baxter coming out is front page news??? Seriously?? What the fuck? I could see it being news if some A-list sex-symbol who was in the public eye , like Brad... ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/29 "2009-12-03T12:44:52Z")
I think Alex P. Keaton would have gone into spasms over this. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/30 "2009-12-03T13:19:52Z")
> [@Cubsfan](#): > > Who gives a shit?? Seriously. Pit thread below. > > [Meredith Baxter is gay? Who gives a fuck??? - The BBQ Pit - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=542355) Well, yeah, I was gonna say… ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/31 "2009-12-03T14:13:28Z")
I totally don’t get the ‘Bridget Loves Bridget’ thing. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/32 "2009-12-03T14:22:54Z")
Early in her career, Meredith Baxter was in a sitcom called _[Bridget Loves Bernie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068053/)_, with her first husband, David Birney. It was about an uptown Irish-American woman who married a Jewish cab driver. It was based on the 1920s play _Abie’s Irish Rose_. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/33 "2009-12-03T14:28:56Z")
On a whim last night, I plugged Meredith Baxter’s name into the youtube search engine, and got this clip. Remember the show “Family” from about ten years before “Family Ties”? Anyway, when taken out of context and in light of recent revelations, the dialogue from this scene seems to have a funny subtext. [Link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zkRRRTdML4&feature=related). ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/34 "2009-12-03T15:22:03Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > Early in her career, Meredith Baxter was in a sitcom called _[Bridget Loves Bernie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068053/)_, with her first husband, David Birney. It was about an uptown Irish-American woman who married a Jewish cab driver. It was based on the 1920s play _Abie’s Irish Rose_. Gotcha, thanks. I knew everything in your post except the name of the sitcom, which is sort of the keystone to the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/35 "2009-12-03T16:13:13Z")
Meredith sure was pretty. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/36 "2009-12-03T17:59:00Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Alex wouldn’t mind. He and Skippy have been married for years and happily running a B&B in Vermont. Gary Goldberg, the producer of “Family Ties” commented last year on “where is Alex now?”, when he speculated about [who Alex would have voted for](http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/what-would-alex-keaton-do/): > [@](#): > > For what it’s worth Michael J. Fox and I have differing opinions about just where Alex Keaton is today. I believe he does pro bono legal work for the Children’s Defense Fund. > > Mike thinks he’s just now getting out of prison. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/37 "2009-12-03T18:15:42Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > I think Alex P. Keaton would have gone into spasms over this. I see what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/38 "2009-12-03T18:26:20Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > When Chastity Bono came out, her Republican dad was cool and accepting, while her Democrat mom freaked out. FTR, if you re-read my first post, you will notice that I did NOT make any mention of Alex Keaton being a _republican_, but a _conservative_. Yes I am well aware that there are as many democratic homophobes as there are gay republicans, but _conservatives_ in general have made a very specific point of demonizing homosexuality. And also, there were numerous episodes of “Family Ties” built around the premise that Alex believed a woman’s place was in the home raising the kids and cooking in the kitchen. One episode in particular had Alex and his mother Elyse (Baxter) taking a small-engine repair class together - Alex became infuriated that his mother excelled at the class,while he floundered. I think the notion that, if Alex’s mother had come out as a lesbian (as the RL actress has) and had a g.f. who was a _general contractor_, the g.f.'s occupation would upset him more than his mother’s sexuality. He’d be bothered by a woman doing a manly job that he would likely not be good at. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/39 "2009-12-03T20:50:46Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > I totally don’t get the ‘Bridget Loves Bridget’ thing. Should actually be “Bridget Loves Bernadette.” ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704/40 "2009-12-03T21:18:04Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > I think the notion that, if Alex’s mother had come out as a lesbian (as the RL actress has) and had a g.f. who was a _general contractor_, the g.f.'s occupation would upset him more than his mother’s sexuality. He’d be bothered by a woman doing a manly job that he would likely not be good at. Are you talking about the Alex Keaton of the 1980s, or how Alex might think of it today? People’s opinions do evolve over time, especially when an issue involves a family member. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bridget-loves-bridget-meredith-baxter-comes-out/519704.md?page=3)