I do get pissed off when I'm at some gay event, and there's a 25-year-old, and he has no idea who I am. And I say, 'You need to know more about your gay history, boy.' I think the younger generation takes it a little bit for granted.
What we do is provide a suggestion. We say, 'We're queer. We're going to do this; we're going to open up the space to queer thought.' People don't have to show up, but they do.
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.
I am part of a legacy of queer black women who have fought for the freedom of black people across the globe.
I'd rather not be known as the Vice President's lesbian daughter.
As a gay man, I think the role of culture is central to how you change politics - culture is politics.
My own strong feeling was that the gay liberation movement really got national attraction in the truest sense of the word later in the '70s, in the '80s, and especially in the '90s.
The inspiration of my drag is the history of drag, the long tradition of drag queens being at the forefront of queer activism. That informs my drag style, and in a sense, that is the direction we need to go in the future.
We need to talk about representation for queer people in the media and also in law. And there's a long history of drag queens leading those discussions in marches on the street and even in bars going back to the time of Stonewall and before.
I’m pissed off at my Republican family back in North Carolina, several of whom came to my wedding, but who went right back and are voting for homophobes and acting like it doesn’t matter. It does matter and it’s time for the queers in this country to start saying so to their families. I think we’ve all cut them too much slack for far too long.
I'd like to see drag really cultivate its political roots.
I didn't know Charlie before doing the movie, but I was a huge fan of the British Queer as Folk.
People often ask me why I choose to primarily play queer characters, and my answer is that as a queer man, I choose to align myself with projects in which I can be of service for a purpose greater than myself: to be for an audience of queer people of color, something I didn't have the privilege of seeing as a young man.
You know, in this industry, being an openly queer actor or entertainer, you can play the game your way, or you can play it the industry's way. And I decided to play it my way. I played it the industry's way far too long.
I love St. Vincent. She is like our queer rock goddess and that's so needed.
We must be vigilant in sharing our stories and our truths as queer parents of color at every chance we get if we hope to see art imitate real life.
The queers of the sixties, like those since, have connived with their repression under a veneer of respectability. Good mannered city queens in suits and pinstripes, so busy establishing themselves, were useless at changing anything.
Queerness isn't just Lady Gaga and overpriced drinks and fauxhawks. It's James Baldwin and Bea Arthur and Gertrude Stein and Gore Vidal.
I knew that I wanted to primarily play queer characters.
I want to see some queer politicians, some drag queens and drag kings running for office and shifting the way that policy is made as well.
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.
For a long time, I lived in West Hollywood and watched young gay men strolling through life having no idea what came before. They didn't know about the riots at Stonewall, the vice squad, the raids.
Anita Bryant is an important figure in gay history because she enraged a generation of people who got active.
Off the top of my head, Alan Cumming was probably my biggest inspiration, as an actor and as a queer person.
My films might have been queer - because I was - but they were not gay.
