In a candid interview from her apartment at the iconic/infamous Dakota Building in New York City’s Upper West Side, Yoko Ono shared her thoughts on art, equality, her husband’s murder on the sidewalk below, and John’s sexuality.
You can read the full piece on The Daily Beast.
Here are a few highlights:
Her thoughts on LGBTQ equality:
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The existence of prejudice is “incredible,” she says, and marriage equality is “really great, we shouldn’t be so thankful. It’s just normal.”
Prejudice, she thinks, “goes both ways, I’m sure gays feel straights are really dumb. There’s more freedom being gay probably, that’s good.”
LGBTs should have true equality, Ono says, “and you’ll get it. Equality is people having to create their own future. That’s what they’re [gay people] doing. They should be very, very positive.”
“Equality under the law and equality in real life is slightly different,” says Ono. “People are different from how the law can control them. We have a very complex life called the human life. There’s more than equality in life.”
On her own sexuality, and John Lennon’s:
“Well, that’s another thing. John and I had a big talk about it, saying, basically, all of us must be bisexual. And we were sort of in a situation of thinking that we’re not [bisexual] because of society. So we are hiding the other side of ourselves, which is less acceptable. But I don’t have a strong sexual desire towards another woman.”
So did Lennon have sex with other men?
“No, I don’t think so,” says Ono. “The beginning of the year he was killed, he said to me, ‘I could have done it, but I can’t because I just never found somebody that was that attractive.’ Both John and I were into attractiveness—you know—beauty.”
OzJosh
Yoko settles the score, huh? Because what husbands tell their wives about their sexual histories is always pretty reliable, right? And because aspiring pop stars would never sleep with their managers? And hormonal teens or twentysomethings never experiment? And because the intense relationship that Lennon had with Brian Epstein, who was friend, mentor and role model, couldn’t possibly have spilled over into something sexual?
Brian
Men’s desires for men is often hidden from their prospective wives and girlfriends. Women tend to be very intolerant if they discover that their future husbands or boyfriends were interested in men at some stage in their lives.
As for Yoko, at least she has a knack for clarity. I’ve always admired her and her independence.
lauraspencer
They were both into beauty?? Did they ever look at each other or in the mirror? They weren’t attractive people. Talented…yes. Physically beautiful…not so much.
Robert Barber
Naive Woman.Honestly dont kniw how She could have stayed on at The Dakota after What happened?I couldnt look at the Bldg.
David Junior
I liked his music with and without the Beatles. What he was doing with his music when she seemed to take over was the beginning of his downfall. I think she is a evil genius who seen that he was starting to recognize what harm to his career and his life she was causing and in my opinion she was the one behind his killing because for the last 6 months of his life she was always at his side wherever they were seen in NYC. This one time she stayed home.
Sluggo2007
Beauty? Did she really say that? I’ve seen better faces on poison bottles.
Brian
At least Yoko sang live. Can you say the same about Britney Spears? I doubt it.
Most of today’s bimbos couldn’t sing live if you paid them a million dollars.
dwbyers1960
They were into beauty? I guess they didn’t have any mirrors in the house.
alphacentauri
This is old news. I read in biographies about Lennon that he was bisexual and had sex with Brian Epstein; but that Brian Epstein wanted a relationship while Lennon was married and Lennon wanted to keep their relationship strictly business as Epstein managed the beatles, and this is one reason why Epstein killed himself.
petensfo
Wow… kind of a harsh crowd here in the comments section. I totally ‘get’ what she’s saying & think that at that time an outlook like that would have been very out of the mainstream. Sexuality is more fluid than most people want to admit.
Chevelter
Yes, in my opinion they were unattractive too, but unattractive people aren’t only attracted to other unattractive people. Everyone like’s beauty.
Curtispsf
I saw a special on The Beatles where Klaus (last name temporarily forgotten) during the Hamburg days. He reportedly saw John having sex with a transvestite. John boarded a plane for Spain with Brian Epstein on vacation the day after his first son was born; he went from the hospital to the airport. Also, Yoko gave an interview after John’s death where she described him as bisexual. Regardless of orientation, I could see John having sex with a guy because of his adventurous nature. But in the end, it really doesn’t matter. His music is enough for me.
NoCagada
“Both John and I were into attractiveness—you know—beauty.”
Well, OK, then
Thank you Mrs. Dasher
tastevan
Yoko did not stay home when John was shot. She was a few steps from him when he was shot.
semtex
@petensfo: Sadly these days I find a lot of the people who identify as “gay” are far more closed off mentally to the fluidity of sexuality.
SeeingAll
Paul McCartney has said he wouldn’t doubt sex happened between Lennon and Brian Epstein, but for Lennon it would have been more of a power play, manipulation, type of thing, because even at that young age Lennon was very class-conscious and political.