Sharon Gless Plays Lesbian in Film About Couple's Lifelong Relationship

Sharon Gless is laughing a husky smoker's laugh as she ponders how her character in the drama "Hannah Free" is little bit like her. "Crusty" — that's a descriptive she agrees they share. That and "petulant." But not "tough." That trait's too stereotypical for lesbian women, she says. For the first time in her long career, Gless — best known as the blonde Christine Cagney in the cop show "Cagney & Lacey" and as an the understanding mother of a gay child in Showtime's "Queer as Folk" — is playing a gay woman. "Hannah Free," written by playwright Claudia Allen and directed by first-timer Wendy Jo Calton, screens Saturday during the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival. It's a first she sounds giddy about.  In the title role, Gless plays half of a lesbian couple that experiences the ups and downs of a lifelong romance that begins at age 10 and runs through age 80. (Gless, who's 66, plays Hannah at ages 50 and, in a stretch, 80.) Full Story from Austin360

Planning to marry your partner? Click here for gay marriage resources.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com with "subscribe blog" as the subject. Or find us on Facebook - just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you'll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We're also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.