Rachel Maddow - MSNBC Commentator Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow, is first openly gay or lesbian host of a primetime news show on MSNBC. Maddow will replace commentator Dan Abrams in the 9 p.m. time slot. Her show will initially focus on the presidential election and will thereafter become a regular news show. Prior to this, she was a frequent guest on CNN's Paula Zahn Now.Maddow's political views lean left but she is not an Obama supporter. She has not made any decision as to who to vote for and said, "I'm agnostic. I am neutral both professionally and personally. I don't know if I'm supposed to be but it just so happens that I am."She has hosted the politically feisty Rachel Maddow Show on Air America for the past four years, interviewing politicians, actors, thinkers and activists. Her unique and clever views and her conversational ease earned her a massive audience and her popularity is only growing.Since the beginning of her media career, Maddow has been vocal about her activist background and her leftist political leanings. Her pet project, Rachel Maddow's Campaign Asylum, a series of independently produced youtubes position her in vehement opposition to Republicanism and right wing propaganda. She has been called progressive media's next big thing.As the first openly gay Rhodes Scholar, Maddow has a doctorate in political science and a background in HIV/AIDS activism and prison reform.Of course lesbians love Rachel Maddow for her fresh politics, her bold career and being cute as a button. However, her appeal spans the gender and sexuality spectrums, as noted in the New York Intelligencer's article Why We're Gay for Rachel Maddow in which she makes the point that while she is openly gay, she "will not dance like Ellen does."A little known fact about Maddow is her affinity for comics and graphic novels. Maddow said, “I spend my time online and reading political books and my guilty pleasure is graphic novels and comic books. I read a lot of comic books. That’s my escape from the world, which I’ve learned to be proud of even though I kept it a secret for a long time.”I asked Maddow to comment on the term ‘civil union’. She said, “There’s a reason that people want there to be another word besides marriage even if it comes with all the same rights. Of course Civil Unions don’t come with the same rights. Marriage confers a status and they want to deny gay people and they either want to deny us by limiting some of the rights or they want to deny us simply on the basis of not being allowed to use that word which makes me think it’s a term of second-class citizenship.”Maddow is in a long-term relationship with artist Susan Mikula. They have been together for ten years and currently divide their time between New York City and West Cummington, Massachusetts. They are happily unwed.