Kate Clinton (born November 9, 1947) is a American comedian specializing in political commentary from a gay/lesbian point of view. She began her stand-up career in 1981 using her lesbianism, Catholicism and current politics for her jokes. Kate Clinton describes herself as a "fumerist," a feminist humorist. She grew up Catholic in New York State and taught high school English for eight years before becoming a comedian. She began her stand-up career in 1981 using her lesbianism, Catholicism and current politics for her jokes.

When she is asked about anti-war movement in 1969, she said: "You’ve got to remember through my college years I lived at home. By day we would take over the administration building and then I would go home and my father would be
waiting up and say, what did you do today? Yes, I was involved in that and the burgeoning of the feminist movement. In the past 40 years what events do you think have most impacted lesbians? I would say the lesbian cultural work, the amazing network of music producers and show producers. The old Olivia and Redwood. It wasn’t there, and so we created our own culture. That was critical. Also the written word, was so important to me, so early lesbian presses were putting out Mary Daly and Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde. It was the beginning of women’s studies. I think that was a really critical thing that came out gay movement and the anti-war movement. Lesbians looked around and said, there’s no place for us here. We’ll make our own spot. And the continuation of some of those. The good ol’ Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival is important."

Kate works extensively with social justice and nonprofit organizations, and has been a regular MC at major fundraising events and dinners for groups like the NYC LGBT Center (at its Annual Garden Party); the National Center for Lesbian Rights; the ACLU; Out & Equal, among others.

Kate Clinton lives in New York City and Provincetown, MA with her partner, Urvashi Vaid since 1988. Urvashi was executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force from 1988–1992 and has been an activist and writer since that time. Clinton's 2006 tour marks her 25th anniversary as a professional stand-up comedian.

Clinton performed on Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour 2008. Also in 2008, she toured with her "Hilarity Clinton" one person show.

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