In order to make a change, I have to exist in a traditionally homophobic space such as hip-hop. If I were to just be this queer rapper who only spoke to queer kids… I don’t think I could as effectively make a change for another young, black, queer kid growing up in Texas.
There are so many voices that tell people, especially queer people, that they don’t have importance and regality.
People ask if I’m concerned about getting pigeonholed. No one asks, ‘Ellen, you’ve done seven straight roles in a row. Shouldn’t you shake it up, do something queer?’ There’s still that double standard.
We must do our part to make ourselves visible to the world. Let everyone see that being a queer parent of color is normal and happening right next door to them.
A friend told me about the casting notice for ‘Queer Eye.’ I was in Chicago and I had a contract with ‘Esquire’ magazine, so had been coming to New York City regularly and thought I’d catch a cheap flight, crash on a friend’s sofa and do this hilarious audition that I had no chance of winning.
The most radical thing about our lives is getting to be in a visibly filled-out queer crowd every night.
That’s what I wanted ‘Pirate Jenny’ to be: a queer, revolutionary fairy tale for the people that I love.
Growing up as a queer child in Mississippi, I got my Nintendo in 1985, and I’ve been lost in this world ever since. When I was scared because my church said people like me were going to burn in hell, ‘Final Fantasy,’ ‘Dragon Warrior’ and ‘Super Mario’ offered a lifeboat.
When I go to Fire Island, it’s always sort of the same thing. Everyone is coexisting, and isn’t that nice? But also, the risk of people co-opting what is a queer invention is okay, as long as it’s not for capital.
I think that there are all these amazing figures in our history – the Bowies, the Tina Turners, the Chers, the people who are, in many ways, genderless or represent ‘the other’ – and I want pop music, and other queer artists – Kehlani, Perfume Genius – these people are bringing queer narratives into people’s minds.
I get a real thrill for being ‘overtly queer’ in my aesthetic.
My mother went through a phase in her life where she… stopped being queer for religious reasons. I remember, my mother rebuking her sexuality… Queerness was not okay. She basically just said it wasn’t okay for her… This is what, in my experience, religion can do to a queer person.
We are traumatized by growing up in a world that doesn’t really accept us. Obviously, we’ve made great leaps and bounds, but I think there’s a tendency to force a narrative onto queer people that once you come out… you have to be really happy and really successful and proud all the time.
I really do pride myself on being able to help other people tell their stories and bring out the best in them. But I still, every song I’m writing, I still need to relate to it. I still need to find my true self in it, or else it’ll feel dishonest. I mean, everything has a queer meaning as far as I’m concerned.
One of the things I’ve always loved about queer culture is the openness and passionate curiosity about love, desire and the myriad forms of affectionate ties.
A lot of my queer development as a kid came from trawling the Internet.
I love that drag is political. For me, one of the reasons I started doing drag was reading about how in the past, drag performers were able to organize the queer community and move us forward.
