What does Sarah Paulson remember about the first time she kissed a girl? “Nothing that I’m going to tell you!” she teases, laughing as if to say “nice try.”

Not that the actress’ entire life is a secret. It hasn’t been.

In 2005, when then-girlfriend Cherry Jones was named a winner at the Tony Awards, Paulson planted a sweet kiss on Jones’ lips. But the 40-year-old acting dynamo isn’t one to kiss and tell – a practice extending to many aspects of her public life, which she’s regulated for a reason: so as not to distract from the stories she’s a part of telling.

Those stories are wide-ranging. In addition to her chameleonic roles in Ryan Murphy’s FX hit American Horror Story, where she’s currently playing a hip ’80s-inspired druggie named Sally, she stars as Cate Blanchett’s former flame, Abby, in writer-director Todd Haynes’ powerful lesbian love story Carol. In the film, Blanchett plays a married woman with a passionate desire for a department store clerk named Therese (Rooney Mara). But it’s the 1950s – homosexuality is taboo, and the closet doors are closed.

Paulson’s story is a different one, however. And the doors? They’re mostly open. 

How do you reflect on your accidental coming out?

I was very young, and I was in love. It was the reality of the person I was with. She just won a Tony Award – I’m not gonna pat her on the back, give her the big thumbs up and say, “Go up there and get your award, sweetie.” It was not a really conscious thought. I didn’t think of what the implications were gonna be. I just did what was true and honest to me in that moment.

The truth of the matter is, it was early enough in my career that there have been no attachments made to me as a performer. I think the thing that makes it somewhat easier in terms of there not having been ramifications is that I’m a character actress – nobody is assigning a particular kind of sexual anything to me, I don’t think. Maybe that’s totally not true (laughs). But it just seems if you’re sort of known for being a sex kitten and that’s how you come on the scene, and then you end up being a total femme fatale actress, and then all of a sudden you make a statement about your sexuality, it becomes news. Whereas I’m a character actress; I can do a lot of things. I don’t think anybody’s made one particular association with me that would then make them go, “Well, I can’t see her this way now.”

You do seem to put your career before your personal life.

I do think it’s more important, and I know that Matt Damon got a terrible amount of flak for the way he phrased those things (earlier this year, he said: “People shouldn't know anything about your sexuality because that's one of the mysteries that you should be able to play.”), but the sentiment is still true: My personal life... I’m not gonna hide it from you, but I also don’t want you to think about that before you think about the character I’m playing. And so I want that to be of paramount importance – it’s of paramount importance to me that you believe the story I’m trying to be a part of telling you, and if my personal life is going to get in the way of that, I don’t like that at all.

Have you been strategic, then, in what you reveal to the public?

The thing with Cherry was very accidental. And, again, I was very young. If it happened to me today, I don’t know what I would do necessarily. I really don’t. I think what I’d like to think is that I would just be who I am and whomever I was with, if I had won an award or they had won award or if it was some kind of public thing, I would not do what I would do simply because I was afraid of being revealed. I don’t think that would be a choice I would make. But I think it was hard a bit because when she and I broke up (in 2009) there were some public statements said by her in, I think, an accidental way that ended up being hurtful to me, so I’ve been very kind of careful now about what I’m willing to talk about in terms of specifics.

So, it’s not been strategic; it’s been life experience. I’ve learned lessons, and therefore I behave in different ways now, and they are not in ways I’m upset about or ways that I think are not good. But like for Therese in Carol, you live and you learn and you come into your own and you start to be responsible for your own power and your own choices and what you’re willing to reveal. At the end of the day, I put enough of my interior life on camera when I’m acting by giving as much of myself as I possibly can – I don’t have to give everything to everyone.

Did working on a movie about repressed sexuality have you reflecting on your own sexuality?

What it really made me think about is the power of love and how, at the end of the day, love is love, period. The end. It sounds cliché, but I think most clichés are clichés because they’re very, very true. And it’s very interesting, because I’ve been with men and women, and (the movie) puts a very fine point on that truth, which is that it’s very personal and that love is love, and sometimes you love a person you weren’t expecting to love – and how glorious is that?

How would you describe Abby’s relationship with Carol?

Carol and Abby were former lovers, for sure. But it was brief and it was much more meaningful to Abby than it was to Carol. In the scene with Cate at the bar, when we’re having our martinis and I say, “I hope you know what you’re doing,” about Therese, I basically say, we can just go back and have that furniture store in New Jersey and Carol basically says no. That is my 1952 way of saying, “Let’s try this again.” It’s code for, “Let's make out.” Carol doesn’t want that with Abby. For me, what I was interested in portraying and making sure was there was that sort of sadness that Abby has – that light and love for Carol that’s not reciprocated – but still, that she would rather be in Carol’s orbit in any way that she can be, so she will be a friend to her no matter what.

You’ve been so matter of fact about your sexuality since unintentionally coming out in 2005. How have you escaped becoming a pillar for the LGBT community?

Because I refuse to give any kind of label just to satisfy what people need. I understand that everybody wants to have a person to look toward that is actively making change around this issue, and I understand for young people coming out they want to attach that hope to a particular person, but I think that honesty is the most important piece of this for me.

All I can say is, I’ve done both, and I don’t let either experience define me. I don’t let having been with a man make me think I am heterosexual, or make me want to call myself that, because I know I have been attracted to women – and have lived with women. So, for me, I’m not looking to define myself, and I’m sorry if that is something that is seen as a rejection of or an unwillingness to embrace (my sexuality) in a public way, but it’s simply not. It’s simply what’s true for me, and that’s all I can speak to.

I can’t speak to how anybody’s experience about this works for them or how they got there or where their comfort zone lies. I would never want that for anyone, and I would never want anyone to ask that of me. And simply because I’m somewhat of a public person doesn’t mean that I then have a responsibility to give you what you want simply because you think I should.

Do you think there is pressure on LGBT celebrities to be activists?

I do, and I think sometimes within the community itself people are like, “You have a responsibility to it – young people need the voices, we need the voices, we need people to see it.” And I get it. But my reality is different than your reality. I have had different experiences. I can meet a man tomorrow and fall in love with him and marry him and I wouldn’t discount any of the experiences that I’ve had with women, or vice versa. I just don’t think anyone is in a position to dictate what that is for me. I understand why the call is what the call is, and that’s also why I don’t hide it. I don’t pretend it’s not true. It’s just, I have to be honest about what’s true for me, that things kind of coexist.

How do you feel about the way Cate Blanchett reacted to the idea that because she’s playing a woman attracted to other women she must have had relationships with women?

I think it’s very interesting – all of it, really. Is anyone asking George Clooney what he likes about having sex with a woman? Nobody does. It’s a foregone conclusion that it’s just an acceptable reality and nobody thinks to bother to ask. But you have a story about two women together or two men together and all of a sudden it becomes fair game and assumptions are made that are just never made in the reverse, and I just think it’s terribly unfair. I don’t know what her reaction was, but I hope it was, “Bugger off!”

Why is anyone making assumptions about anything about anybody’s life? It’s a funny thing when actors complain, like, “I didn’t ask for this; I just wanted to act.” Well, in a perfect world we’d all just be able to act and none of this would be part of it, but it is a part of it – this is part of it – and on some level, it comes with the territory. But on another level, you can be responsible and you can control what you will talk about and what you won't talk about. Either you live your life in a very private way or you don’t, and I never have done that – ever – and I won’t do it going forward. I also won’t serve it up on a platter for someone to feast on, because it’s mine.

Let’s talk about American Horror Story: Hotel, in which you’re currently starring. And you’ve been on the show since the beginning, in 2011. Are you seeing it through to the end?

If they’ll have me. They’re gonna have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming. It’s gonna be American Horror Story Season 720 and I’ll be an 80-year-old woman going, “This is the greatest job in the world.” I will be around as long as they’ll have me – absolutely.

Both AHS and Carol are associated with sexuality in some way or another. As an actress, are you drawn to roles related to sexuality?

As human beings we are very fascinated by sexuality and what it means and who we’re attracted and why, because I think there’s a really big mystery about it. There’s something so unknowable about it, which is part of what makes it so exciting. And I do think this about my career all the time: People think I pick such great jobs – that I picked 12 Years a Slave, I picked Carol, I picked Game Change. I auditioned for them and I got the jobs. And so I’ve been lucky – I actually give the credit to Steve McQueen and Todd Haynes and Ryan Murphy and people who saw something in me that they went, “You’re the girl. I want you.” And so, it’s less about choices I’ve made and things I’ve been drawn to – it’s what has been drawn to me.

I can’t believe you still have to audition.

With some things I don’t! There are a lot of things on TV I don’t. And there are some movies I don’t have to. But for Carol it was a sought after role and many people wanted it and I had to fight like a dog to get it.

How does it feel without Jessica Lange around for the first time this season?

She and I have been friends for a long time. We did Glass Menagerie on Broadway together in 2005, and the whole reason I’m on the show, really, is because of Jessica. I had been at a dinner for Project Angel Food where Jessica was presenting an award to someone and (show creator) Ryan (Murphy) was there, and I was gonna do a play in New York that fell through and so I ended up staying in town. Jessica leaned over to Ryan and said, “Can’t you find something for Sarah to do on the show?” And Ryan, whom I worked for before, went, “Ah, yeah! Actually, I think there’s something coming up,” and it was Billy Dean, the psychic. So, I did it, and that’s how it all started. So I have Jessica to thank for a lot of things, including my run on American Horror Story.

We always shared a trailer. Basically, we have these banger trailers, and every cast member has someone on the other side of the wall. And, for me, it was Jessica for three years straight. Now I have one with Kathy and that’s wonderful because I love me some Kathy Bates, but my personal history with Jessica is long, and so I miss having her around because she was my friend – she is my friend. That part isn’t so fun, but I think Lady Gaga is bringing a really wonderful kind of new energy to it – just different energy. It’s not better energy. It’s a different energy, and I think it’s really wonderful.

Some major religious news has rocked Nevada and other parts of the country. In early November, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that children living in same-sex households may not be blessed as babies or baptized. The Church also announced that same-sex marriage is a sin worthy of expulsion.

“A natural or adopted child of a parent living in a same-gender relationship, whether the couple is married or cohabiting, may not receive a name and a blessing,” the new Mormon Church rule reads.

The Church will only allow children in these circumstances to have their baptismals once they turn 18, renounce same-sex cohabitation and marriage, and leave their parents’ home. Even then, the baptisms would require the approval of the Church’s governing First Presidency. Following the resulting outrage over the announcement, Church leadership made a minor tweak to clarify that children who are already part of the Church would not be kicked out.

Along with this change, the Church also assigned same-sex marriage to the list of acts considered renunciations of the Mormon faith. As a result, those who enter into same-sex marriages are subject to such Church discipline as excommunication.

So why these changes and why now? According to the Associated Press, Church leaders said the changes were necessary to, “reiterate the conservative faith’s doctrinal opposition to gay marriage and provide clarity to lay leaders around the globe asking questions after last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriages.”

Now because these new rules are only in the Church handbook and are therefore not considered doctrinal change, Mormon leaders can revise these policies if they so choose to. Many Mormons are calling for them to do exactly that.

On Nov. 14, more than 1,000 protesters gathered outside the Church’s headquarters in Salt Lake City, many of them standing in line to submit their resignations. As of Nov. 15, 1,500 Mormons have quit the Church over the new rules, this according to Reuters.

Due to Nevada’s sizeable Mormon population, this is a story Gay Vegas will continue to follow closely.

How does Kylie Minogue make the yuletide gay? “By singing about it,” she says, giggling the cutest Kylie giggle. And then she does just that – she sings.

The song? “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” which the Aussie icon spontaneously launches into via phone, putting special emphasis on those “gay happy meetings.” Opening her first holiday album, Kylie Christmas, the frosty favorite is one of 13 songs bound to bring a little extra joy to the world.

“Christmas is a fun time to be over the top, that’s for sure,” Minogue says, before stating what every gay man from here to the North Pole already knew: “I deal in glitter.”

First things first: Have you been naughty or nice this year?

Good question! I’d like to think I’ve been – how can I say this? (laughs) ... the right percentage of both.

How about that time you writhed on a medicine ball during your video for “Sexercise”?

(Laughs) That was a little bit naughty. But a lot of nice. We want nice.

What were your Christmases like as a kid?

Hot! Over the years, my family has embraced Christmas more so in Australian fashion – we haven’t totally let go of European or British tradition, which most people have a link to in that there is still a roast – even if it’s roasting outside, there’s still a roast in the oven. But I would say, same as the rest of the world. Get up, open your presents, run around. Eat too much. The only difference is, we end up in our swimming suit, jumping in the pool, standing around a barbecue.

Do you like a hot or cool Christmas?

I like them both. They’re so different. I don’t remember when my first cold Christmas was, but that I found it very weird. People who’ve never had a hot Christmas – because most of the world associates Christmas with the cold – just cannot get their head around it. Even when we were recording, all the Brits are going, “Don’t you think it’s weird recording in June, July, August? It’s summer.” I’m like, “Not really – makes sense to me.” I love it.

How did you make it feel like Christmas in the studio?

Basically we just decorated the studio. The studio was full of fairy lights and Santa hats and Christmas candles. We did not hold back.

Did you get dressed up for the occasion?

I went Christmas vibes – I didn’t go for full “sexy snow sleigh” album cover. We did have a sleigh in the studio. We had about five huge Christmas trees, giant crackers, toy soldiers and tinsel. Every day we were in there, it was more and more. It was really festive. It felt like Christmas. And I’m glad the world’s catching up – it’s been Christmas since June!

When it comes to presents: giving or getting?

Giving. I know it sounds cliché, but I love when you’ve got something for someone and they’re gonna understand your humor or get it, or it’s something they wouldn’t get for themselves. I especially like the wrapping.

Who are some of the gays in your life that you spend the holidays with?

There’s normally a few around. I mean, my Christmas is different every year. Last year I was in Los Angeles. I feel really odd answering this question… like numbering them! (Laughs) Let’s just say there’s a smattering. More sparkle!

What is the craziest Christmas gift you’ve ever received from a fan?

Oh, I don’t know. I can’t think of one. Nothing that alarmed me. Maybe this year will be different now that I’m Miss Christmas.

If you could kiss anyone under the mistletoe, who would it be?

Awww – that would be my boyfriend (actor Joshua Sasse), for sure! It will be our first Christmas together, so Christmas is even more special for me this year. I better order the mistletoe!

Get on that, Kylie.

Note to self: mistletoe.

What do you make of headlines that draw attention to the fact that he’s 20 years younger than you?

I understand it’s bound to happen because that’s a fact, but I just cannot express to you enough that it just doesn’t factor – it really doesn’t. I mean, I was surprised myself, but who you’re attracted to or who you fall in love with is beyond any kind of boxes that society puts you in.

And you know what, I hate boxes. I hate feeling that I’m restricted in any way, and definitely when it comes to love. You should love who you love.

Of course there’s been those headlines, but people seem to also think that we look like we should be together, so it’s not been as bad as it could’ve been... let’s put it that way.

As a public figure, do you feel people are more prone to put you in a box?

Oh, definitely. I remember it happening from quite a young age, and it would drive me crazy. I started in TV as an actress and began singing, and they’re so sort of close-minded: You’re an actress, not a singer, and then I was known for singing and finally I am a singer and they don’t understand that I still act. That was definitely the first time that that kind of notion hit me, and it just made no sense to me whatsoever.

In a broader sense, I hate being stuck in clothes, I hate being stuck in ideas. Maybe it’s being a Gemini – I need freedom! It’s like with the pony in the yard: If you close the gate, I will go wild; if you leave the gate wide open, I’m probably not going to leave. I just need to know that you’re not closing me in with anything physical or mental. It’s a very deep issue for me.

Christmastime evokes different emotions for different people. For you, what kind of emotions do the holidays trigger?

Excitement, then sheer panic because you think you’re ready but you’re not ready and then it all kind of creeps up on you. I think part of that panic is part of tradition, I guess. I would like to think this year I am officially ahead of the game. Also, wanting to be with family, if possible. And holiday – having a break. I would have to say one of the big pluses about a Christmas album is: At least I know when I’ll be finishing with promotion. December 25 I’m done! My work here is done!

How are some of these emotions presented on the album?

On the album, there’s the kind of toasty just-wanna-cuddle-and-wear-cashmere-sweaters vibe, which I didn’t have the last couple of years because I didn’t have a boyfriend, so that’s exciting. Then there’s the more emotional, bittersweet ones where you’re thinking about someone you love and you’re not with them, and I have that pretty much every year because I haven’t had a family Christmas in Australia for about six years and I’m not having one this year either. Then there’s the ones where everyone’s had a few drinks – Nana’s had a couple sherries – and everyone’s feeling very merry. Then it’s nap time, and you start again.

Earlier this year, and after releasing Kiss Me Once, you left your former management firm, Jay Z’s Roc Nation.
I was getting used to a new situation, and I loved it for all of those reasons. If I compare (Kiss Me Once) to making this album, it’s an unfair comparison. Within the confines of Christmas, you can’t do whatever you want – it’s a Christmas album – but I did learn some extremely valuable lessons through that, and my time there was well spent.

How will what you learned from that experience influence your approach to the next mainstream pop album you do? Assuming it’s pop...

Oh, it will be. I think when Christmas is done, the pop drug will come back… gosh, I mean, this album is pop-y anyway. But with Impossible Princess, I got that out of my system and then I did Light Years which had “Spinning Around,” and then to Fever, which was not quite as camp – it was more icy-pop. What I’m trying to say is that, after Kiss Me Once with Roc Nation, yes, I’ll do things differently, but I kind of do that after every album anyway. But I wouldn’t go around and work with so many people. I would try to be a little more streamlined. And I can say that because I did it and I learned a lot. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

When it comes to your career, your gay audience has been there every step of the way. It’s clear we have a special relationship. After all this time, how would you describe that relationship?

Strong. Genuine. Definitely funny at times. (Laughs) We get the same jokes, put it that way. And I never take it for granted. But you, for a long time, have been very loyal, and I feel like we’ve had a relationship for such a long time – and it’s a true relationship.

Wow – what a shiny cover! It’s no surprise really, since we’ve long been committed to delivering our readers the gold standard. Cheesy jokes aside, doesn’t Kylie Minogue make just the most gorgeous cover girl?

So what exactly did the golden girl gab about? Everything from providing the details on her first Christmas album to the gays she spends her holidays with. She also discussed dating a younger man and what’s next for her. You really couldn’t get a better holiday treat.

Well, maybe a spa day would trump it! In this issue, Michael Barbieri tells us all about the best spa spots in Vegas. Spa days – truly a perfect holiday gift. To give to others, and yourself!

But no matter how bad you want it, you can’t swap your body with Toño Estrada’s. He was the lucky guy who got to go to the Latin Grammys and meet a bunch of stars. Don’t fret though – you get to read all about it in this issue.

We have some more local stories for you as well. This month we highlighted Las Vegas-based political activist Derek Washington and President Barack Obama, both of whom made it on Out Magazine’s Out100 list. Then there’s the story that rocked Nevada: the new Mormon Church rule that prohibits the baptism or blessing of children living in same-sex households. Additionally, the Church also announced same-sex marriage as a sin worthy of expulsion. Heavy stuff, no doubt, but that only makes it all the more important to focus on.

In pure Gay Vegas style, this month’s issue offers you a mixed bag of content. I suspect it should be more than enough to get you through the holiday season.

On that note, happy holidays!