Fridae

Thirty-five-year-old Rachel Maddow has become the first out lesbian to host a prime-time news or political commentary show on American television, and one of the very few women ever to do so, according to Afterellen.com.

She is also the only female host of a news or political commentary show on the MSNBC network.

Launched on Monday, Sept 8, The Rachel Maddow Show is billed as "a smart look at politics, pop culture and all the day's top stories."

"Rachel is unbelievably talented and brilliant; her breadth and depth of knowledge of politics and news is astonishing and I'm so excited to give her a place to really showcase what she can do," Phil Griffin, President, MSNBC said in a press release.

Prior to her getting her own show, Dr Maddow hosted - and will continue to host - her own Air America Radio programme which was described as a show that covers politics as well as questions such as what to do about a hangover. ("Don't drink so much," was her suggestion.)

Known for her humour on air, she told Afterellen.com in an interview last year: "It's always important to have more fun than your enemy. In political circles, it's always important to be a) the cute people, and b) the people who have better parties and more fun. You get more recruits."

The Rhodes scholar with a doctorate in political science from Britain's Oxford University said in the same interview that she had grown up just outside San Francisco in the '80s during the AIDS epidemic.

"It was a life-or-death situation, so the AIDS movement at the time was really inspirational to me in terms of how to respond when you're threatened. It convinced me you had to step up, organise a response, have a movement to oppose what was going on."

She majored in public policy with a concentration in health policy at Stanford University as an "effort to get everything she could out of her education to make her a better AIDS activist," Shauna Swartz wrote in Afterellen.com. She also became an activist for issues related to labour rights and queer visibility.

"I guess I'm preternaturally confrontational or combative or attention-seeking or something," she said as she recalled her coming out at Stanford by posting her coming out letter inside all the bathroom stall doors in her dorm.

Maddow found her way into broadcast journalism when friends convinced her to enter a radio contest for Holyoke, Mass., station WRNX, which was looking for a new on-air personality.

The press statement included mention that Maddow lives with her partner, artist Susan Mikula in New York City and Massachusetts.

The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC telecasts weekdays 9-10 pm (ET) and The Rachel Maddow Show on Air America airs weekdays 6 -9 pm (EST) online at airamerica.com.


Rachel Maddow on her butch identity:

"Well, you've seen Susan (Rachel's partner) and me, very different women! A butch-femme thing going on, which I love! I was in a diner recently, in a booth with Susan. There are these two guys with baseball caps and Susan's back is to them. They stop talking and are obviously listening to us. Once guy finally comes over and says 'I recognise you by your voice,' looking at Susan. I said, 'That would be me. Thanks for listening!' The blood rushed out of his face. He associated pretty voice�pretty girl, and here was this butch dyke!" - Maddow on whether she has been recognised by her voice.

"They see me as a novelty. I've slipped through the cracks, this butch dyke. They always try to bring up gay marriage with me. We're talking about Syria, Bosnia, Rwanda refugees on CNN and they're like 'Rachel, now how does this relate to gay marriage?' It's also an interesting challenge to have to be so concise on TV, using language to bring people along with you and also to provoke them. People say, 'Isn't it hard to only have three minutes to argue against the death penalty?' But, don't you rebel against the restraints, you work within them." - Maddow when asked by Velvet Park's Alix Olson what it's like to actually confront the 'white boys' that so many of us refer to in our work.


Rachel Maddow on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann on John McCain and gay marriage



The Rachel Maddow show: The Politics of Palin