Born This Way Read Free Page A

everyone but my parents. I am embarrassed by how long I kept the additional “roommate decoy” bed in the living room for when my parents visited me. Much to my mother’s credit, when I told her of another friend who’d died of AIDS, she asked me if Scott and I were “more than roommates.” I’ve been with my partner, Scott, for thirty-three years now. Although we do not have children, we share a song-writing career that has given birth to many proud accomplishments. I have never had a day in my life when I didn’t feel it was a blessing being born gay.

todd, age 4
    I’ve seen home movies of me as a small boy, fearlessly singing and dancing for the family. My parents thought I had enough charisma to be on television, so they took me to Hollywood to get some headshots done. All I can remember is that I was breathless traveling to Tinseltown. I was sure that we would run into Ginger from
Gilligan’s Island
. We didn’t see Ginger, but I did meet Grandpa Munster (aka Al Lewis) at Universal Studios. I cried for hours because he was green and old and kissed me on the cheek. Putting that tragedy behind me, I continued to perform and got my big break at an audition for Ron Moody’s production of
Oliver
. Walking into the Ahmanson Theater in downtown Los Angeles and seeing all the other little boys who loved to sing and dance, I thought I was in heaven.

patrick, age 6
    I knew by no later than age four that I had a secret. By age ten, I had full knowledge that I was what everyone else seemed to hate. I tried to pass for straight until college, where I found others like myself. The stress created by years of hiding was replaced by a deep spiritual sigh of relief when I came out in 1981. My family’s reaction was akin to, “Yeah, we know. Now pass the butter and get your elbows off the table.”



mike, age 4
    I knew I was gay pretty early on, from about the age of five. As a kid, I was captivated by Patrick Duffy on TV’s
Man from Atlantis
. He was always in his little swim trunks and was quite buff back then. He also had webbed hands and toes, which were some kind of odd turn-on for me.
    Growing up in a blue-collar, intolerant environment in the suburbs of Montreal, I wasn’t exposed to a lot of progressive thinking. Especially in my early teens, I sure could have used a helping hand along the way. I stayed in the closet until the ripe old age of seventeen, when I just couldn’t contain myself anymore. At which point, I came out screaming and flailing my arms.
    At the age of twenty, I moved to the United States with just three hundred dollars in my pocket and a desire to be involved in the entertainment world. I’m now based in Manhattan, and doing just that.

steven, age 4
    My sister remembers this as her baton-twirling costume. I don’t remember wearing it, but I’m sure my mom thought it was harmless and funny. As early as this age, I loved feminine things, art, and playing doctor with my cute neighbors. Later I was in chorus and band, like many of us back then. And I was the only boy in junior high to choose disco class over football.
    When
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
played at the local theater, I went done up as Frank-N-Furter and dethroned the person playing him. I realized that if I was performing, I was more powerful. In the ’80s I discovered Hollywood and other out-of-the-closet gay teens. I had my first gay kiss at an under-eighteen disco called the Odyssey Club in West Hollywood. We all loved Boy George and the freedom to cross gender barriers.
    In 1985 I moved to New York City and became part of the nightlife. Drag culture had taken over Manhattan nightclubs, and I morphed into a new romantic drag queen. Within a year, I was hired by Patricia Field as a stylist. I won a drag contest at the Boy Bar club as Miss Perfidia in 1986. I lived with established drag performers who trained me well, and I took my show all over the world. My