A Dangerous idea from John Waters

To The Best Of Our Knowledge
Listen nowDownload file
Embed player

Hi, my name is John Waters, and what is a dangerous idea? Who is the new minority within the gay community itself? I always wonder…I am a gay man who’s single and has no desire to get married. Are we the new people people are going to be prejudiced with? Or how about transgendered people that feel suddenly they made an irrational decision, and want the sex change to go back to the original sex they were the first time? Are these the new pariahs in the gay community?

I also have a lot of butch lesbian friends that are older; they can’t say it for political correctness, but they’re very nervous about the transgendered movement, because they feel that butch culture of women will vanish. And me? I love transgendered men, because they look like boys I like so I get confused. Many of them like me, too, and they ask me to sign their mastectomy scars, which I always do, because I like to keep up with what young people are doing.

And also, with gay marriage, which I’m of course for, but you don’t have to do it. I mean, I know gay people who have met somebody on one date and they rush out to get married because it’s legal now. And you better be careful, because in Los Angeles or in San Francisco, or all of California, there’s “no-fault” divorce; 50-50. So you could meet somebody once, and if they’re rich—I’m telling you, this is a gold digger hustler free-for-all! Be careful. There’s gay divorce. There’s gay alimony. You have to think everything through.

I’m always concerned. You know, my book, *Carsick*, is out right now, and do I want it in the gay section? No! The gay section, if you notice, is always by the bathroom, near “true crime” in the back. I want it up in the front. I don’t understand any kind of separatism. There’s such a thing as the gay olympics. I don’t understand that. Are we handicapped now? I don’t know; I don’t get why it’s an “alternative" thing.

So I actually think that I love how the minor battles of political correctness within the gay struggle continues. It’s something I’m a big fan of, and like to watch, and like to talk about it because it makes people nervous. Now gay people have to be “good” all the time. I think they should have the right to be bad mothers, they should be villains in movies, why do we have to be good all the time? That’s kind of dreary.