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Bernhard has clocked a lot of cutting-edge moments: A generation before Ali Wong earned acclaim for doing raunchy comedy while pregnant, Bernhard was blazing the theater world, including on Broadway with her solo show \u201cI\u2019m Still Here \u2026 Damn It!\u201d<\/a> \u2014 foul-mouthed with a sheer dress and a baby bump, that she pointedly never addressed. <\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all, being pregnant is so, sort of, pedestrian,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a billion people having babies all the time, so why talk about it? It wasn\u2019t my jam. And I loved it. I had so much fun being pregnant, being onstage, performing, and not just sitting around waiting to have a baby.\u201d (The show also drew criticism for a bit about Mariah Carey that the singer found racist; Bernhard has said<\/a> her language was socially acceptable commentary at the time, but also acknowledged that comedy standards have changed.)<\/p>\n She hosted a 10 p.m. talk show for A&E long before the chatter about women taking the helm in late night. And years before Ellen DeGeneres came out, Bernhard played one of the first openly queer characters<\/a> on TV, as Nancy, a friend on \u201cRoseanne,\u201d in the \u201990s; she was also an outspoken presence during the peak of the AIDS epidemic.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was one of the people who taught us \u2014 who taught me \u2014 how to activate, how to be present and show up,\u201d said Billy Porter,<\/a> her co-star on \u201cPose,\u201d the FX series about underground ball culture, whose characters are haunted by the disease.<\/p>\n For Bernhard, it was a chance to mine her real-life emotions \u2014 she lost many friends to AIDS, she said \u2014 in a character, a nurse, who was, as she put it, unglamourously \u201cin the trenches.\u201d<\/p>\n She and Porter were the two cast members who had personally experienced the first wave of the AIDS crisis. \u201cWe really connected on that \u2014 the other people were acting a history lesson, but we had actually lived it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were telling stories of intense trauma, and it was great to have her there to help me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n