INTERVIEW: Margaret Cho Talks Gay Marriage And Deems Herself “Prime Minister of the Gays”

Okay, here’s my take on the whole outing uproar–maybe we should apply that rule (if we can call it that) only to private citizens. Celebrities are strictly on their own, no matter how cute they are or how much we like them.
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Cho has been taking a lot of shit for daring to talk honestly about Travolta’s situation, and this being 2013 I cannot understand why. I cannot understand why because someone like John Travolta can’t deal with himself, the rest of us are on lockdown. No one else is allowed to publicly say his name and the word “gay” in the same sentence? Really? This 58 year old closet case is smooching a guy on the lips as they’re boarding a plane yet everyone is either supposed to pretend they didn’t see it or use words like “allegedly” to talk about it? It just gets so absurd. What exactly is our collective silence supposed to be protecting him from? If anything, silence has been causing Travolta’s problems!
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On second thought, maybe that rule shouldn’t apply even to our adult friends and neighbors, seeing as we all know how someone else’s relentless lying can cause unfair dilemmas for everyone around them–just like chickenshit celebs who can’t face their fears.

Jul 10, 2013 at 9:23 pm · @Reply ·

@dwndckd: Wow, indeed.
Excuse me, Mr. Str8 Male, but who besides you says that Margaret Cho is speaking on anyone’s behalf other than her own? She’s as entitled to her considered opinions as you or anyone else, and as a member of the LGBT community I dare say she has insights into the dilemmas of celebrity closet cases that you clearly never will. Given how few secrets there are within the Hollywood industry–which Cho has been a part of for some time now–it’s a safe bet that if she names a name she knows whereof she speaks.
And can I say how sick to death I am of clueless twits like you using your obvious discomfort with “the homosexual community” to push the beyond-tired “privacy” argument?There is nothing remotely “private” about being gay, no more than there is anything “private” about being straight. Gay is an identity, not some thing that “happens within the privacy of one’s home” and speculating that someone is gay is not invading their bedroom and turning on the lights–that’s YOUR hangup.
No, dwndcked, you don’t get it–that admission represents the one intelligent statement you’ve made here.

Jul 11, 2013 at 10:40 pm · @Reply ·

@GeriHew: Your proposal makes absolutely no sense. Are you and dwndckd sharing a brain?

Jul 12, 2013 at 11:31 pm · @Reply ·

@GeriHew: Your suggestion that JT “isn’t obviously gay at all,” is “obviously some kind of bisexual man” and that is “obviously why” he’s not likely to come out.
How precisely is Travolta obviously not gay yet obviously bi-sexual? Your observations only work if you’re dealing in tired stereotypes–the idea that you can always tell a gay man by his girly lisp and limp wrist; the assumption that gay men don’t marry women unless they’re actually sexually interested in them, in other words bisexual.
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The only way I follow you on this is if what you’re saying is that Travolta will not ever come out because he won’t have to, since his marriage and biological children have given him enough cover with a mainstream press that remains loathe to touch this subject.
Marriage and kids has been for millenia the tried and true vehicle by which gay men with public profiles have been able to hide more or less in plain sight.
The problem for the likes of John Travolta is that that party is slowly coming to an end, partly because the culture around him is changing, and partly because he is–his own unhappiness and the sometimes desperate, predatory behavior it’s producing, is creating problems for him that will make it harder and harder for even the entertainment press to continue to sell his bullshit with any credibility.
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This was the essence of Margaret Cho’s comments about him, that he can’t keep up this tapdance forever. She does get it; she’s seen it, she’s been there, and she has a pretty good idea what he’s going through and why it may be healthier for him in the long run to come out.

Jul 13, 2013 at 6:21 pm · @Reply ·