Rachel Maddow and Jane Lynch Say Obama’s Support Affected Them Personally

Advocate: MNSBC’s Rachel Maddow and comedian Jane Lynch talked Wednesday about how President Obama’s support for marriage affected them personally.

“I felt like half of me had to have a talk with the other half,” Maddow said of the internal conflict of being a political journalist who is a lesbian. She said journalists were missing the point, and that the real importance of the president’s statement is its potential to change minds.

Lynch said the president’s statement had awakened something in her.

“When the president came out and said that he supported the dignity of our families and our relationships, that really moved me, that really touched me for the first time,” she said. “And I’ve realized that I’ve been kind of distanced from it emotionally.”

Maddow picked the out Glee star as the “Best New Thing in the World” on Wednesday and let her deliver a stinging rebuke of Republican opposition to marriage equality.

Lynch pointed out a high-level GOP pollster’s worry that the party is on the wrong side of political trends.

“Someone’s going to have to teach Republicans how to to talk about gay rights,” Lynch said, “without seeming like they’ve caved to the Democrats. Some strategists are going to have to make it their speciality to teach Republicans how to be pro-gay while still sounding angry.”

Rachel Maddow’s Rockstar-esque Book Tour

Maddowblog: Any of the links below lead to more information on acquiring tickets. Some of these events have already been doing their own advertising, so they may be sold out. Some of the dates don’t have links yet so I’ll update this post as new information becomes available.

Thursday, March 29, 7:30pm, talk & signing, Barnes & Noble, Union Square, New York City

Saturday, March 31, 2pm, talk & signing sponsored by Northshire Bookstore, at Maple Street School, Manchester Center, VT.

Saturday, March 31, time TBD (7 or 7:30pm), talk & signing for Odyssey Bookshop, at Mount Holyoke College, Chapin Auditorium, S. Hadley, MA. **Link TK—tickets won’t go on sale until March 1

Sunday, April 1: 4pm, talk & signing for Harvard Bookstore at First Parish Church, Cambridge. Link TK

Tuesday, April 10, 8pm: Rachel Maddow in conversation with Bill Maher. Sponsored by Writers Bloc, at Saban Theatre, Beverly Hills.

Wednesday, April 11, 7:30pm, signing only, Barnes & Noble, The Grove, Los Angeles

Thursday, April 12, 7:30pm, Rachel Maddow in conversation with Daniel Handler. Sponsored by the Commonwealth Club, at Castro Theatre, San Francisco.

Friday, April 13, 8pm, talk & signing, sponsored by KPFA Radio, at King Middle School, Berkeley.

Saturday, April 14, 4pm, talk & signing for University Bookstore, at Town Hall, Seattle.

Sunday, April 15, NOON, talk & signing for Powell’s, at McMenamins Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR. Link TK

Saturday, April 21, 8pm, “A Conversation with Rachel Maddow.” Sponsored by Next Chapter Bookshop, at Riverside Theater, Milwaukee.

Sunday, April 22, 2pm, “A Conversation with Rachel Maddow.” Sponsored by Rainy Day Books, at Uptown Theater, Kansas City.

Saturday, April 28, 8pm, talk & signing at Sixth & I, Washington DC

Rachel Maddow Lands Prestigious John Steinbeck Award

SheWired: MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has been named this year’s recipient of the prestigious John Steinbeck Award, given to public figures who exemplify the late author’s values.

Maddow is the third woman to win the award and the first recipient under 40, reports Media Bistro. The award, presented by the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University in California, is “given annually to honor an artist, thinker, activist who has made a significant contribution to causes that matter to the common person,” according to the center’s website. “It is also known as the ‘In the Souls of the People’ Award.”

Steinbeck is famed as the author of many novels, including The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and Of Mice and Men, as well as nonfiction works. In a press release announcing the award, his son Thomas Steinbeck said, “My father would have adored Rachel Maddow. … Listening to Rachel Maddow is like listening to Walter Cronkite. We have that kind of trust in her. When I watch Rachel Maddow, I feel like I’m part of an alliance. I hope she’s in it for the long haul, because we really need her.”

Past recipients of the prize, first given in 1996, include Bruce Springsteen, Arthur Miller, Studs Terkel, Joan Baez, and Dolores Huerta. Maddow will accept the award and appear in conversation with radio host Pat Thurston in An Evening With Rachel Maddow at 7:30 p.m. February 25 at the university’s Morris Dailey Auditorium. For more information, click here.

There’s 50 pics of Rachel Maddow floating around. Guess my favorites.

Go to Autostraddle to see them all…and keep BOTH hands on the computer keyboard, please.

Rachel Maddow continues her reign of greatness at MSNBC

AfterEllen:The news that MSNBC has signed Rachel Maddow to a new multi-year contract will hopefully overshadow last week’s headlines of the lawsuit she was served with by Christian rocker/minister Bradlee Dean. But the 38-year-old host of The Rachel Maddow Show isn’t concerned about any of that — she’s been up 23% in ratings in the second quarter of 2011, and she’s part of MSNBC’s overall rise. The president of the channel says Rachel’s new contract is keeping her around for “a long time to come,” which is great news for fans of her show or of Rachel herself, an out lesbian activist turned broadcast journalist who is primarily concerned with, as she says, public policy. Read more