"Does sexuality matter in the comedy business?" I asked Suzanne Westenhoefer, who has been credited as the first lesbian comic to come "out" in mainstream comedy. "I started my career as a lesbian before I was a comic," she said, "and started as an activist before I was a lesbian. I was one of those people in high school who would get into arguments with the sociology teacher and stand up for the 'misfits,' of which I was one of." Making a stand was what seemed to drive her forward. Westenhoefer did not always identify as a lesbian, however. Early on she felt that she was out of the mainstream but it didn't occur to her that she was gay until she was 19. "It was such a shock when it occu