Brown does not operate under the misconception that coming out is one long festival. She accepts the attitude of gay people like Frazier's former lover, Ann, who believes that "not every gay person has to carry a banner."

"Their view of you will change forever," Aunt Ruru explains kindly to her newly-out niece, Frazier. "You will be reduced to an object. It's not fair but that's the way it is. If you wear a purple skirt people will say it's because you're a lesbian. You own an art gallery. They'll say that gay people are always artistic."

But Rita Mae Brown stresses the fact that coming out for her, in 1961, was not that difficult. "If you're somebody who's made her career and has a lot invested in that career and social standing, it can be very hard. When you're young, you have no career, you have no social standing, Who cares?"

"I was in an orphanage and survived it," she continues. "Got adopted and got all the way here, you know. I just never gave up. I'm essentially a poor Southerner that made good. It's the classic Southern story--great blood-line, no money."

This is the only time that she allows herself to be labelled: "I fall into a category that is tolerated in the South," she explains. "A person that says exactly what she thinks and has impeccable manners."

Interestingly, Brown's distrust of the lesbian label is echoed by Frazier, who notes that the word has "a dolorous quality attached to it. Perhaps it was the number of syllables or too many consonants. Gay pleased her. It had a frivolous, light-hearted quality and it made her laugh."

As it determined to highlight her stance as an individual, Brown pointedly refuses to accept the usual burden of political correctness that comes with being a "gay author." With enormous relish, she has her characters tell stories of sniffing cocaine from an erect black penis ("It doesn't look as good on a white cock.") Nor does Venus shy away from the reputation of promiscuity enjoyed by the gay community. As she tells Frazier: "We shared our bodies. We gloried in the experience. I go my way and you go yours far richer than before we met. If I sleep with someone else, how can that take anything away from you?"

So where does Rita Mac Brown go from here? "I just had a movie-of-the-week that was called "The Woman Who Loved Elvis.' I do lots of TV work. My cat's finished another book," (Sneaky Pie Brown writes gory mysteries such as Rest in Pieces) "and I'm doing another novel."

"Can you tell us anything about it?" I asked. "I don't know how long it will take. I don't know what it's called. I don't know what it's about," she declared candidly, and smiled.